Cyclospora outbreaks have been accounted in Iowa, Nebraska and Texas affecting nearly 400 people.
The disease is an extensive intestinal illness usually contracted by eating contaminated food.
On Wednesday, federal officials stated that it was too early to establish the relationship between the cases reported in at least 15 states and the rare parasite. However, health officials from Iowa and Nebraska have traced cases to pre-packed salad though they haven’t divulged yet the company responsible for the packaging or where it was sold. They just explained that most of it wasn’t locally grown.
Information deficiency has ignited concerns from consumers and food safety advocates who squabble over making companies accountable when outbreaks happen and consumers need the details where occurrences came from to make wise food choices.
Bill Marler, a Seattle attorney who specializes in class-action food-safety lawsuits, said in the Washington Post, “If you want the free market to work properly, then you need to let people have the information they need to make informed decisions.”
Mark Hutson, a Save-Mart grocery owner in Nebraska said that he was oblivious of consumers who had raised concern about the product, which was odd in situations involving food-borne illnesses. He added that the lack of specific brand information pose threat to clients.
“I think there was so little information as to what was causing the problem, that people just weren’t sure what to do,” he said in the Washington Post. “Frankly, we would prefer to have the names out there.”
So far, only Nebraska and Iowa officials had unswervingly associated the outbreak in their states to a salad mix of, romaine lettuce and iceberg and red cabbage and carrots.
Health officials in California, which provides much of the nation’s green leafy vegetables, said in Wednesday that the state had not received any reports of the cyclospora cases.
Spokesman Corey Egel said in a statement to the Associated Press, “Based on the most currently available information, the leafy greens being implicated in this outbreak were not grown or processed in California.”
Iowa Food and Consumer Safety Bureau chief Steven Mandernach was bothered saying in an interview, “The product was widely distributed in Iowa by wholesalers who could have supplied the bagged salad mix to all types of food establishments, including restaurants and grocery stores.”
