Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb stated on Sunday that Taylor Farms requesting the White House to intervene ahead of a massive cyclospora recall was “not standard operating procedure.”
During his appearance on CBS’s Face the Nation, Gottlieb addressed a Wall Street Journal report that Taylor Farms had reached out to the White House to push back the recall announcement while federal investigators worked to publicly tie the company to the multi-state outbreak.
“That was not standard operating procedure,” Gottlieb asserted. “And it certainly was not standard operating procedure during my tenure at the FDA.”
“I have managed outbreaks involving romaine lettuce, spinach, and E. coli in those greens. I never received communications from the White House on those matters, aside from discussions to ensure they were briefed and prepared to handle questions,” Gottlieb noted. “Therefore, this is highly unusual.”
According to the Journal, Taylor Farms representatives contacted the White House asking for more time before the government publicly connected the company to the outbreak. The report indicated that the White House brought FDA officials into the call, during which Taylor Farms argued that federal investigators lacked definitive laboratory evidence linking its products to the outbreak and feared the government was exaggerating the company’s accountability.
Taylor Farms sought the meeting after executives felt they had not received enough clarity from the FDA regarding the evidence supporting a potential recall and its scope, according to an individual familiar with the matter cited by the Journal.
The recall connected to the cyclospora outbreak has been plagued by confusing messaging. 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 stating that lettuce outside the recall had tested positive for cyclospora. A day later, the FDA deleted that statement and declared the test a false positive. The FDA maintained that the recall was still in effect, despite an enigmatic statement from the supplier.
“Today, the FDA apologized to us,” read a statement on the Taylor Farms website, despite no public information detailing an official apology. The farm added that “at this moment, FDA has not identified a single positive product test result for Cyclospora.” A day later, Taylor Farms clarified that the recall remained active and that they were no longer sourcing iceberg lettuce from central Mexico for the current growing season.
Federal health officials have spent weeks providing oscillating responses to the cyclospora outbreak, which has sickened thousands and can cause severe gastrointestinal illness, as officials and experts have questioned both the administration’s handling of the investigation and Taylor Farms’s response.