Latest from Food Politics: Update on the Cyclospora outbreak: What to do?

States have reported upwards of 20, 000 cases of Cyclospora-caused explosive diarrhea, some of them–but by no means all—traced to lettuce grown by Taylor Farms in Mexico and shipped to Taco Bell and, apparently, lots of other places. The best way to ...

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By Marion Nestle August 04 2026 Update on the Cyclospora outbreak: What to do? States have reported upwards of 20,000 cases of Cyclospora-caused explosive diarrhea, some of them–but by no means all—traced to lettuce grown by Taylor Farms in Mexico and shipped to Taco Bell and, apparently, lots of other places. The best way to keep track of all this—and it is a lot to keep track of—is to read food poisoning lawyer Bill Marler’s blog and Phyllis Entis (the bug lady) at e-FoodAlert. I wrote about the system-failure issues raised by this Cyclospora outbreak last week. This week, I want to talk about what to do about it. I hate to say it, but for starters, do not eat bagged salads until this industry can get its act together and prevent human (for Cyclospora) and animal (for E. coli and Salmonella) waste from getting anywhere near irrigation water used for growing lettuce. And maybe don’t eat lettuce at all.  You can buy whole heads, remove the outer leaves, wash what’s left, and hope for the best, but if Cyclospora is on that lettuce, it won’t wash off and is still risky. We need to get the FDA and CDC back on the job to get producers to produce lettuce safely.  For this, I defer once again to Bill Marler. Here is what they should have done and still could do today: 1.     Restore required Cyclospora reporting in FoodNet…FoodNet measures trends, it does not detect outbreaks. But it was narrowed eleven months before the largest Cyclospora outbreak this country has ever recorded, reinstating it costs almost nothing, and every letter Congress has sent asks for it. 2.    Make cyclosporiasis reportable in every state, not merely nationally notifiable. Those are two different things: notifiable means CDC asks for the case, reportable means state law requires it. The parasite does not observe the difference, and neither should the count. 3.    Publish one national number and update it. CDC currently maintains an outbreak page frozen at 1,947 since July 24 and a surveillance page reading 6,707, while the states themselves report 20,927. Pick a figure, define exactly what it counts, include probable cases, and refresh it on a schedule the public can rely on. An agency that will not publish the size of a problem cannot expect to be believed about the solution. 4.    Grant the citizen petition that has been sitting at FDA since Feb. 4. Stop Foodborne Illness asked the agency to adopt a policy of naming every company associated with a foodborne illness outbreak, recall or no recall. It requires no rulemaking; the Commissioner could grant it this week with a memorandum…. 5.     Bring back the Microbiological Data Program, and this time give it a parasite target. The MDP was created under President Bush’s 2001 Food Safety Initiative and tested about fifteen thousand produce samples a year — bagged lettuce and spinach, cilantro, hot peppers, tomatoes, sprouts, melons — for roughly $4.5 million a year, and it accounted for something like eighty percent of all federal produce pathogen testing until it was zeroed out and shut down in December 2012….while we are at it add the parasite to CDC’s national wastewater surveillance network, which reaches roughly fifteen hundred sites and about half the country and does not look for this organism at all. 6.    Put the FSMA 204 traceability rule back on its original schedule instead of 2028. Susan Mayne, who has actually run lettuce tracebacks, said on national television this week that it would have been enormously helpful here, and that without it the same thing happens again next summer. 7.     Name Cyclospora in the pre-harvest agricultural water rule. The only numeric microbial criterion in Subpart E is generic E. coli, and FDA’s own guidance says fecal-indicator testing will not identify this parasite…. 8.    Stand up the independent board Frank Yiannas has been asking for since 2025 — an NTSB for foodborne outbreaks, investigating across agency lines, publishing root cause and lessons, with no stake in the reputation of the agency whose work it is reviewing….the point is not to find fault; it is to find facts…. The point here is that our food supply needs to be a whole lot safer.  When food safety rules are in place, followed, and inspected to make sure they are followed, food poisoning incidents go down. We saw that with meat safety in the 1990s. Leafy greens have been a food safety problem for a long time.  It’s way past time to get that problem addressed. ____________________ Arriving Sept 8. For a 30% discount, pre-order here using code UCPSAVE30. The post Update on the Cyclospora outbreak: What to do? appeared first on Food Politics by Marion Nestle      Related Posts Botulism in infant formula: Companies must prevent this. Now. Food safety in peril: a post from Bill Marler The Cyclospora outbreak: an everyone-is-at-fault system failure: “LettuceGate”   Now Available: What to Eat Now My new book, What to Eat Now, is officially out! It's both a field guide to food shopping in America and a reflection on how to eat well—and deliciously. For more information and to order, click here. You can explore the full archive of this (almost) daily blog at foodpolitics.com, where you'll also find information about my books, articles, media interviews, upcoming lectures, favorite resources, and FAQs. Visit the Site » ​​​​​​​ Marion Nestle Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University, Emerita © Marion Nestle. You're receiving this email because you've signed up to receive updates from us. 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