Taylor Farms, whose produce was linked to this summer’s diarrhea-causing parasitic outbreak, said it is indefinitely suspending iceberg lettuce shipments from central Mexico for much of next summer.
The Salinas, Calif.-based company will not harvest or process iceberg lettuce from central Mexico during the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s defined cyclospora season, Taylor Farms Chief Executive Bruce Taylor said in a public letter. The season runs from May 1 to Aug. 31, according to the CDC . That mirrors the rainy season in Mexico, the company wrote in its letter.
Taylor Farms grows and processes a large portion of the produce sold in the US, including 40% of bagged or packaged salads, according to the company. The produce supplier has also said it is the largest grower of organic greens in North America.
After cases of the gastrointestinal illness cyclosporiasis emerged this summer, the company suspended production at its facility in central Mexico, which had been linked to the parasite. Taylor Farms has not said when it will reopen it.
In September, the CDC declared an official end to the outbreak caused by the parasite found in iceberg lettuce, which resulted in thousands of infections and two deaths this summer. More than 12,800 people contracted cyclosporiasis that was tied to lettuce sold by Taylor Farms, the agency said.
Earlier this month the Food and Drug Administration concluded its investigation and said it had identified several farms and a processing facility in Mexico that provided recalled lettuce distributed by Taylor Fresh Foods, the parent company of Taylor Farms. The FDA said it collected two samples on site in Mexico that tested positive for cyclospora.
“While there is currently not enough evidence to conclusively determine how contamination occurred in this outbreak, the positive samples show that Cyclospora was present in the environment where lettuce was grown and processed,” the FDA said.
Taylor Farms said earlier this month it was no longer working with the independent grower where a positive sample was found.
Taylor Farms’ CEO said the company was also expanding its year-round health monitoring and increasing the testing of its irrigation waters and crops, as well as investing in new research and technology to make it easier to detect cyclospora.