FDA Inspectors Check Out Taylor Farms Plant in Mexico

Federal investigators are at Taylor Farms in Mexico, nearly a month after American officials publicly tied its shredded iceberg lettuce to the largest known cyclospora outbreak in the US. FDA inspectors are now examining the company's processing plant and plan to move into the fields, the Washington Post reports, but food safety experts say the delay may make it harder to pinpoint what went wrong, especially since production there was halted July 18. The outbreak has sickened nearly 10,000 people across 47 states and led to two deaths.

It's also prompted a recall of about 3.1 million pounds of lettuce, for which demand is falling, distributed under multiple brands to major chains, including Taco Bell, Walmart, and Subway, according to FDA records. Investigators suspect contaminated agricultural water but say the cyclospora parasite is notoriously difficult to detect and often is unevenly spread through food. Taylor Farms also recalled products that include jalapenos, though the company did not grow the chili peppers. "The jalapenos came from a separate grower, handled by a different importer that sold them to a number of different entities," a food safety consultant told CBS News, saying Taylor Farms' role in that case is "an extremely unfortunate coincidence."