US largest food distributor orders stop on lettuce purchases after cyclosporiasis deaths

The nation’s largest food distributor has immediately stopped carrying the nation’s scariest plant.Well, sort of.Sysco, the world’s largest broadline food distributor, has announced it will no longer buy iceberg lettuce from Mexico after the now-deadly ‌cyclosporiasis outbreak.The Houston-based company’s CEO Kevin Hourican recently told Reuters it is not buying lettuce from Taylor Farms after the U.S.

Food and Drug ​Administration linked ‌the “explosive diarrhea” parasite to Taco Bell, who served lettuce from ​Taylor Farms operations in central Mexico. “We’re not buying iceberg lettuce from them, and we’re not buying it from Mexico,” Hourican said in an ​interview.“To the degree that we can further diversify our procurement, that is something we’re actively working on.”Hourican said Sysco initially stopped selling the Taylor Farms iceberg lettuce from Mexico back in mid-July just before learning Taylor Farms had already issued the recall.

The company is now buying lettuce from the US however, consumer demand has gone down drastically.“It’s a high quality, high integrity shop, but we’ve had to take actions,” Hourican told Reuters.“We’ve moved source of product away from them to the degree that we can.

Because they’re really big, you can’t just turn it off overnight.”‌Cyclosporiasis is an intestinal disease that causes diarrhea, severe cramping, nausea, vomiting and fatigue.It’s not typically life-threatening but has killed two people in Michigan who had “significant underlying health conditions,” according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.“Taylor Farms is the largest producer — they’re the biggest — and if we’re not able to buy from them, we can easily go elsewhere,” Hourican said.

“Replacing the amount we buy elsewhere is the challenge, and it’s something that we’re working on.”Taylor Farms also issued a voluntary recall on July 18, which included iceberg le...