Can we eat lettuce again? The truth about salad risk amid explosive diarrhea parasite outbreak

Salad lovers are dealing with information whiplash after a series of revelations about where exactly the parasites causing “explosive diarrhea” are coming from.Last week, the FDA traced illnesses to shredded iceberg lettuce from Taco Bell in five states.The next day, they said that lettuce was coming from Taylor Farms in Central Mexico — which sells lettuce and salad kits at Walmart, Target, Whole Foods, plus regional markets across the country.By Saturday, the company recalled all iceberg lettuce sourced from Mexico.

On Sunday, the FDA said the lettuce tested for cyclospora was actually a false positive — and that there haven’t yet been any positive samples of cyclospora found.Does that mean lettuce is safe to eat again?The FDA is clear: Don’t eat recalled iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms.These products were distributed over a two week period across 27 states.Despite the false positive, “FDA’s traceback investigation and outbreak data continue to converge on shredded iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms locations in central Mexico,” the agency said.Look out for the Taylor Farms name on iceberg lettuce packaging at the supermarket and check the dates against the FDA’s recall list.If you’re out to eat, there’s a chance Taylor Farms supplies their lettuce.

Taylor Farms sells lettuce to Sysco, the biggest US food distributor, which serves restaurants, delis, schools, institutions, sports venues.How did the FDA get a false positive in the first place? Experts told the New York Times it’s because it’s really hard to test for cyclospora in food — there is such a low number of eggs that would be present in a real positive sample, the test may pick up on “noise” or DNA from other microbes that are similar to the cyclospora parasite.The most accurate way to find it is testing human feces, because that’s where the parasite grows.Unfortunately, that’s not helpful when trying to find where people are getting sick.As of Friday, over 1,600 p...