Opinion: Why we still don’t know what foods are the source of the cyclospora outbreak
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- Cyclospora has sickened nearly 7,000 people across 34 states this summer, and the CDC still cannot determine whether the surge is one outbreak with a common source or several unconnected clusters.
- Michigan health officials named lettuce and salad greens a "potential source" on Monday — the first state to publicly narrow in on a food — but cautioned that other foods cannot be ruled out and no grower or supplier has been named.
- Taco Bell restaurants posted signs blaming a "nationwide recall" for removing fresh toppings, though the FDA has issued no such notice; federal and state investigators are now examining the chain.
- Michigan guidance confirms cyclospora cannot be reliably washed off produce and that "pre-washed" labeling is no guarantee, with cooking at 158°F or hotter the only sure kill method.
- The CDC narrowed FoodNet from eight tracked pathogens to two last July, dropping cyclospora entirely due to inadequate funding, and hundreds of federal food-safety staff have been cut.
- The Food Traceability Rule, which would require lot-level records enabling rapid traceback to a field, was deferred from 2026 to 2028 at industry's urging and ratified by Congress.
- Michigan logged 3,309 cases as of July 14, against the roughly 50 it sees in a typical year, after continuing to interview thousands of patients — leading the tallies possibly because it kept counting after other states stopped.
Why it matters: With nearly 7,000 sickened across 34 states, Americans cannot learn which food is making them sick because the federal system that would tell them has been thinned: FoodNet cut from 8 pathogens to 2, hundreds of staff eliminated, and the Food Traceability Rule pushed to 2028. Michigan's lead is a hypothesis, not an answer, and no other state can match it against the rest of the country.
