The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) concluded that Taco Bell's lettuce appears to be the most probable source of the recent E. coli outbreak in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.
The CDC reconfirmed that this outbreak is limited to these four states only, and that no person has become sick after eating at Taco Bell since Dec. 3.
The CDC's analysis is based on a statistical probability based on interviews conducted with patrons who became ill. Lettuce is served in approximately 70 percent of all Taco Bell menu items.
Taco Bell hired an independent scientific laboratory, Certified Laboratories in Plainview, N.Y, which conducted tests on more than 300 samples of all the ingredients served in Taco Bell restaurants. No ingredient, including lettuce and cheese, tested positive for the E. coli 0157:H7 bacteria. All cheese used by Taco Bell is pasteurized, making it highly unlikely it is source of the illness, according to the CDC.
The lettuce supplied to Taco Bell restaurants in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware was grown by various farmers and shipped to the company's former produce supplier. The lettuce was rinsed, cleaned and packed, and sent to a distribution center in Burlington, N.J., for shipment to all Taco Bell restaurants in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. Taco Bell purchases less than 20 percent of the lettuce produced by this supplier; the remaining 80 percent is sold to others throughout the region. Taco Bell switched produce suppliers for the region to Taylor Farms Dec. 9 as a precautionary measure.
"The report that produce is once again implicated in a food-borne illness outbreak has a devastating impact on farmers and all companies in our industry who share the goal of providing consumers with healthy eating choices," said Bryan Silbermann, president of the Produce Marketing Association. "Even though the industry has always put the health and safety of the public first, it's clear we must do even more."
