Uncle Sam battles an explosive outbreak of poop soup.
Deservedly or not, the United States has earned a bad reputation for the overall quality of its cuisine.
From spray-on cheese to Jello salad to deep-fried butter on a stick (trust us, that is a thing), the fresh food deserts in the land of the free are maligned for their heavy reliance on ultra-processed ingredients, chemical additives (many of which are restricted or banned in other developed nations) and high concentrations of sugar and sodium.
So it is a touch ironic that the latest food hazard to beset the home of the brave comes in the usually healthful form of shredded iceberg lettuce.
More specifically, a nasty little parasite known as Cyclospora cayetanensis found in lettuce supplied to fast-food retailers such as Taco Bell has resulted in a massive outbreak of explosive diarrhoea, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention saying there had been more than 23,000 cases either confirmed or being investigated across 47 states.
Health commentators in the US are suggesting, however, that this number is only the tip of the iceberg (sorry) and that, due to under-reporting, the true figures could be many multiples higher.
The condition being caused by the parasite is known as cyclosporiasis and it manifests itself via watery and dramatic bouts of the Hershey squirts.
At time of publication there had been more than 500 hospitalisations, and at least two deaths, sheeted home to the dodgy green leaves, although US health authorities pointed out that the fatalities were linked to other underlying conditions and most souls recovered from the illness in a few days.
Having said that, it does appear that US head health honcho Robert F. Kennedy’s declaration that the outbreak was “under control” on July 21 was somewhat optimistic, given that cases of folks painting Pollocks on the porcelain grew more than 10-fold since that date.
The contaminated lettuce was initially thought to have come from a Mexican supplier called Taylor Farms, a company that has made significant donations to the Trump administration and has been linked to the use of prison labour.
Taylor Farms has withdrawn its lettuce products from distribution, but the FDA is continuing to investigate whether the parasite entered the food chain from other sources, citing some “false positives” in its testing of Taylor products.
The smart money is still on the culprit being farm products sourced from central Mexico, and if that does prove to be the case, never has the expression “Montezuma’s Revenge” – often used to describe cases of gastro-intestinal distress – seemed more apt.
Send story tips and Immodium freebies to Holly@medicalrepublic.com.au.
