Cyclospora outbreak expands to certain fruits: What to know

What is going on in the produce aisle?First, you got the cyclospora that hit the lettuce.Produce distributor Taylor Farms impacting restaurants like Taco Bell and McDonald's.And now, in a recent interview, a former CDC director says the parasite is being found on fruits like raspberries and blueberries and snow peas.So we need to bring in Dr. Brendan Namira, a former lead scientist with the USDA.There is a ton to unpack here.

Doctor, it's great to have you.I have to admit, I went grocery shopping yesterday and I'm going, I don't know what to buy.So what is safe to eat right now?

So the, thanks Liz.Thanks for having me.

Yeah.

So the ongoing outbreak with Cyclospora has to do with shredded lettuce that's produced from Taylor Farms.And they have a really clear idea of where that parasite was coming from, what products were at risk, and what products people should avoid.When you go down the produce aisle, I would say that most of the fruits and vegetables that you see there, they are not associated with this outbreak.So they're not going to be part of the recall effort.There's not going to be that issue on there.Cyclospora is one of those organisms that Just because of the way that it is found in the environment, you know, you have these seasonal occurrences of it.

It sometimes will pop up.And obviously this year it's coming in a big way.But some of the products that you can sometimes see this on, and as you've seen in the past, are berries, snow peas, things like that.None of those products have been identified with this outbreak this year.So we're talking about things that have happened in the past.But if you're going down the produce aisle looking for fruits and vegetables, almost all of those are not associated with this kind of an outbreak, and they're just as safe as they ever were.

I think that is a really good takeaway.So if you're going down in the produce aisle, what you see is safe for the most part there.You know, beyond the produce aisle, what about restaurants?I mean, I don't want to stop going out to eat.I like going out to a restaurant.How do we do our due diligence there?

Yeah, again, you know, this organism,there's a certain batch of the iceberg lettuce and the shredded lettuce that was provided in food service packs to certain restaurants, to Taco Bell and some other things there.They know where that lettuce went.They've got a good tracking system.Traceability is a whole part of our food production and distribution system.If you're going out to a restaurant and you are not at a place, you're not eating a place that was associated with this, that received some of this lettuce, then you can be pretty co nothing to do with it.

Uh you know, go that extra m a little bit extra confi you're in an app, what w population, right?If yo health issues that might spinach salad instead, you know, or have some, you know, kind of an other vegetable product, you know, go with the green beans, right?That's a one way for you to kind of distance yourself a little bit and have that little extra added level of security.

And, you know, you just mentioned that when people have those underlying health issues, when we when we hear that, oh, they had underlying health issues because there were two deaths in Michigan associated with this.But they also said the same thing, that these people had underlying health issues.What are we talking about here?

Sure yeah I mean it's tragic when that happens.Cyclospora is one of those organisms that can be very widespread and can make a lot of people sick but generally speaking the illness that it causes is not necessarily life -threatening.I mean it's certainly painful and uncomfortable to have you know this kind of you know watery diarrhea and so on but the big thing that this causes is dehydration.It causes your body to lose extra water and if you're not monitoring this, you're not responding to this, then you can get dehydrated.If you are elderly or if you have a heart condition or something where dehydration would be a severe issue for you,yeah, then that can end up causing more kind of compounding medical problems, compounding issues.

The best advice is if you're suffering this kind of a situation, if you think you've been exposed to this, go seek some medical advice and ask them to do a cyclospora test.Because if you have cyclospora specifically, then there are treatments readily available that will help to mitigate the risk.and shorten the length of the illness.

And that's what we want.We want to get it out of here.I mean, besides the cyclospora, it feels like in the news we've been doing a lot of, I mean, there's the salmonella outbreak linked to jalapenos at Chipotle and a couple days, a week or so ago, we were talking about eggs that, you know, were possibly recalled for a salmonella outbreak.What is going on?Is there a bigger concern here or is the system working how it should?

The thing is that the food system is complicated and Americans consume about a billion meals every single day.right?300 million america's three meals a day works out to almost a billion meals a day.And when you're looking at the amount of food that's consumed, the amount of the kinds of things that are out there, you are going to have some of these issues.Now, this is an ongoing challenge.People are very attentive to this.

The producers, manufacturers of fruits and vegetables of meats of eggs of other kinds of products have a lot of food safety systems in place to catch all of these things.So when you have an identified contamination on some kind of a product and they're able to find that and and say, well, we had this particular organism on that particular product.They can corral that, they can isolate that, and they can keep that from getting into the public.I mean, ideally, you'd like to have a system where nobody ever has any contamination, nobody's ever getting sick from this.We're working towards that.There's different tools and technologies and procedures that are moving us to safer and safer food.

But right now, we're in a situation where you still have these things that pop up occasionally, and you do respond to them and try to keep people from getting ill.

Dr. Brendan Namira, the voice of reason.We really appreciate you being here this morning.Thank you so much, especially with me. I see these things, I get very anxious.So it's good to have you, you know, talk us off the ledge.Thank you.

You're very welcome.If you'd like to learn more, come join us at the Institute of Food Technologies.IFT .

org.Oh, okay.Thank you so much.