Tainted McDonald's Lettuce Traced to Fresh Express

Posted by Carol Miller|August 15, 2018

The FDA has traced the parasite-tainted McDonald’s romaine and carrot salads to Fresh Express. The multistate outbreak of the Cyclosporiasis parasite has garnered a lot of press attention, adding to public anxiety around romaine lettuce, which was at the center of other foodborne illnesses this year, including the deadly Yuma, AZ-linked e. Coli outbreak in the spring.

So far, 436 confirmed cases are linked to this current outbreak. Only 4.5% of the cases (20) are ending up in the hospital. Officially, the outbreak involves 15 states, but four of those states involve patients who purchased the salad in the primary 11 states involved with the outbreak.

The parasite is linked with the romaine in the McDonald’s salad, the FDA reports. Fresh Express says only the McDonald’s salads have tested positive.

“Romaine lettuce from the same lot that was positive for Cyclospora was distributed in pre-made salads and wraps distributed by Caito Foods LLC,” the CDC report says. “Fresh Express also reported that no romaine lettuce from the lot that was positive for Cyclospora was packaged for direct retail sale to consumers.”

At this time, there is no evidence to suggest that this cluster of illnesses is related to the Cyclospora outbreak linked to Del Monte fresh produce vegetable trays.