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Diarrhea Summer Outbreak

25:37 recording · EN · 4 speakers

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Brief overview

A cyclospora outbreak exposes how industrial bagged salad outgrew the food safety system meant to police it.

  1. Bagged salad multiplies one farm's mistake nationwideJim Gorney: one mistake gets amplified as produce is commingled through the processing plant, so an outbreak once limited to a town now spreads across the country.
  2. Farms were unregulated until the 2006 spinach deathsBefore the Food Security Modernization Act, the FDA had no legal power over farms and workers did not even have to wash their hands.
  3. New powers without money or scienceThere is still no regular inspection schedule for farms, foreign farms are rarely visited, and there are no great tests for detecting cyclospora on vegetables.
Executive Summary AI
  • A cyclospora parasite has infected more than 1,600 people with thousands more suspected cases, and the FDA traced it to shredded lettuce from Taylor Farms, which is now recalling product in 27 states.0:27
  • Taylor Farms came out of nowhere about 30 years ago to become America's leading salad supplier, a multi-billion dollar operation feeding Taco Bell, McDonald's, Costco, Whole Foods, Aldi and Safeway.1:05
  • Joe Pazzini, a third-generation Salinas Valley farmer and former Taylor Farms director of agriculture, explains that iceberg lettuce won because its crunch survived rail trips east, making it the first vegetable to defy the seasons.4:58
  • Breathable film bags that balance oxygen and CO2 turned lettuce from a cheap commodity into a value-added manufactured product, and by the 1990s bagged salads had taken over grocery stores while foodborne illness rates climbed.7:43
  • The 2006 bagged baby spinach E. coli outbreak hospitalized more than 100 people and killed a toddler, Kyle Allgood, pushing Congress to pass the Food Security Modernization Act in 2010, which Jim Gorney went to the FDA to turn into farm rules.12:02
  • Jim says outbreaks keep happening for three reasons: some water standards were finalized only two years ago with compliance not due until 2027, the FDA lacks the money and inspectors for even a three-year farm schedule, and the science on pathogens like cyclospora is still incomplete.19:26
Key Quote
“I always compare it to being like a really big garden.”
— Joe Pazzini4:12
Key Quote
“Yeah, it's a little mini environment for that produce.”
— Joe Pazzini7:30
Key Quote
“To me, it's almost like lettuce has become kind of a widget.”
— Jim Gorney9:15