Taylor Farms' White House recall delay request 'not standard,' ex-FDA head says

"I dealt with outbreaks in romaine lettuce and spinach as well, E coli in spinach and romaine lettuce. I never heard from the White House on those things, other than to have discussions to inform them of what we were doing, so that they were properly briefed and could respond to questions that they were getting," Gottlieb said. "So it’s unusual."

According to the Journal, representatives for Taylor Farms contacted the White House requesting more time before the government publicly linked the company to the outbreak. The report said the White House asked FDA officials to join the call, during which Taylor Farms argued that federal investigators lacked positive laboratory evidence connecting its products to the outbreak and expressed concerns that the government was overstating the company’s responsibility.

The company sought the meeting after executives believed they had not received sufficient clarity from the FDA about the evidence supporting a potential recall and its scope, according to a person familiar with the matter cited by the Journal.

The recall associated with the cyclospora outbreak has been fraught with confusing messaging. The iceberg lettuce was initially linked to a single supplier, Taylor Farms de Mexico, which issued a voluntary recall.

However, the FDA issued an update last week: lettuce that was not part of the recall had tested positive for cyclospora. But a day later, the FDA deleted that line and said the test was a false positive. The recall still existed, the FDA insisted, despite an enigmatic statement from the supplier.

"Today, FDA apologized to us,” a statement on the Taylor Farms website read, despite no public information about an apology. The farm added that “at this moment, FDA has not identified a single positive product test result for Cyclospora.” A day after that, Taylor Farms clarified that the recall was still in effect and that they were no longer sourcing iceberg lettuce from central Mexico for this growing season.

Federal health officials have spent weeks on oscillating responses to the cyclospora outbreak, which has sickened thousands and can cause severe gastrointestinal illness, while officials and experts have questioned both the administration’s handling of the investigation and Taylor Farms’s response.