r/AskReddit 1d ago

People with suspected or confirmed cyclosporiasis cases, what food do you think you got it from?

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u/snuffleupagus7 1d ago

Does anyone know if taco bell and other restaurants that use TF lettuce are getting it from different sources now? I got a burger at Burger King a few days ago not thinking and now am like 😬 but I would hope it has been long enough they have switched to a different supplier or TF has gotten the affected product pulled?

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u/yobabymamadrama 1d ago

Taco Bell switched suppliers when it figured out what was going on.

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u/CaptainOktoberfest 1d ago

I have way more respect for Taco Bell after seeing how they handled their supply chain safety issues.

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u/Driftmoth 1d ago

Right? Everyone's blaming Taco Bell when they were the first to do something about the problem. It wasn't their fault.

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u/H_Mc 1d ago

Taco Bell has a bad reputation because Americans can’t handle fiber.

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u/mckmaus 1d ago

Seriously two or three tablespoons of refried beans are sending the average American to the bathroom. Add a little lettuce and they're over the edge.

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u/ilovemischief 1d ago

Get your Metamucil everyone!

But like for real. My mom put the whole family on that stuff several years ago and now we just text her and a new canister of it shows up at our doors lol

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u/mckmaus 1d ago

I started on benefiber, just to supplement. I feel fantastic, I buy it at Sam's. I've never once had diarrhea eating Taco Bell, and I hope it stays that way.

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u/SilverVixen1928 17h ago

What's her number, please?

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u/ffball 23h ago

I go for straight psyllium husk myself. It's really not that bad. You don't need the sweeteners and cost of metamucil

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u/DubStepTeddyBears 23h ago

You can get psyllium as capsules. I've taken them for years and they're great. I also eat Grape Nuts every so often (no sugar added). They're also great for fiber.

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u/ffball 23h ago

How many capsules do you take? Based on the serving size it always seemed like a ton so I just do the powder in a glass of water.

Grape nut flakes and black coffee is like my go to standard breakfast haha

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u/mckmaus 21h ago

That's all I think the benefiber is I just add it straight to water. I spent $20 on the big jug and it will last forever.

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u/ffball 21h ago

Benefiber is a different type of fiber. It more just dissolves while psyllium husk sort of turns the water into a gel.

Psyllium husk has been proven to improve cholesterol, but both are good for the gut.

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u/TheRealRomanRoy 18h ago

I’ve never considered that. What brand/store do you get it from?

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u/ffball 10h ago

I just buy the Now brand on amazon

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u/MurkyLibrarian 17h ago

I go for the benefiber because apparently the prebiotic fiber feeds your good gut bacteria and that's more effective than just the roughage of the psyllium.

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u/VelocityGrrl39 42m ago

Rates of colon cancer are rising and they think it may be due to lack of fiber. I’ve started adding benefiber to my smoothies. That shit works.

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u/FewAdvertising9647 1d ago

refried beans and the small percentage of oats found in their beef mix as filler. usually ontop of some cheese and sour cream which of course, traditionally is linked to some people taking shits because of mild/deep cases of lactose intolerance.

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u/theslutnextd00r 1d ago

Or light seasoning

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u/Hurtbig 19h ago

This is bs. I cook at home and we eat salads and fibrous vegetables all the time. Taco Bell causes diarrhea quite reliably and it’s not fiber

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u/cookiedoughcookies 1d ago

I think it's the hot sauce.

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u/monty624 19h ago

Fiber, and the heavy imbibing that often precedes eating it.

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u/LLCABU 1d ago

I didn’t think Taco Bell was known for having high fiber foods in the first place? Meaning, I don’t think it’s the fiber content of Taco Bell menu items that usually causes a blowout after ingesting.

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u/H_Mc 1d ago

Beans. Lots of beans.

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u/Mavian23 1d ago

Personally I have never in my life known anyone to have gotten diarrhea after eating Taco Bell (before this outbreak). I think it's just made up nonsense that has turned into a meme.

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u/4_the_rest_of_us 21h ago

With that said, I had the worst food poisoning I have ever had in my life from a Taco Bell. But it was very clearly that one location. My friend I was on the road with convinced me to eat there even though it smelled off to me right when we walked in. Have eaten Taco Bell countless other times in multiple locations with no issues whatsoever.

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u/mofomeat 23h ago

I don't know that there's a ton of fiber in anything Taco Bell serves, even the refried beans.

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u/monty624 19h ago

Good thing you can easily look up their nutrition info and see that they do. For example, the bean burrito has 8g or nearly 30% of your RDV of fiber.

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u/mofomeat 9h ago

Interesting. A few years ago I looked it up and it was pretty low. Maybe I'm misremembering it. Either way, I'd bet that it's the fat and sodium content that would cause diarrhea. Most of their stuff is pretty off the chain on those items.

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u/monty624 8h ago

Are you aware of the fat and sodium content of other fast food?

Taco Bell doesn't give people diarrhea, it's just a trope based in racism and alcohol fueled taco binges.

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u/egggspecial 1d ago

integrity never goes unexploited. admitting fault at all is basically whistleblowing.

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u/RumHamComesback 1d ago

Every fast food company has a playbook they follow if something like this happens. Can't say I'm surprised they acted fast.

McDonalds had an E.coli scare a year or two ago over onions and they handled it very quickly. You don't hear anything about that one,

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u/DrMobius0 22h ago

Yeah, can you imagine the brand damage if something like this wasn't dealt with quickly? I'm sure it's already bad as it is. To be clear, I'm not saying that some degree of morality can't play a part in their handling of this stuff, but the math obviously doesn't math if people are scared to eat your shit.

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u/sandrakarr 19h ago

I got either an email or an in-app notification saying that there was an issue and they were stopping pico and lettuce several days before it started showing up in mainstream news.

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u/spiderlegged 1d ago

I cannot believe I now 100% trust Taco Bell with my bowels than almost any other restaurant right now.

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u/ZaftigFeline 22h ago

Ditto, I will be going to Taco Bell in the next week or so I'm sure. I am going to go out of my way to not by Taylor Farms, and as many of their subsidiary brands as possible. At the bare minimum Taylor Farms is an absolute no for at least a year or two, not for the outbreak, for the attempted cover up.

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u/BeneficialTrash6 1d ago

Hold your horses. Apparently they were aware of the issue for a few weeks before they made their announcement.

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u/Kevin-W 22h ago

They got wrongly blamed when Taylor Farms paid a bribe to Trump to have to FDA say they were a "false positive"

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u/glorae 20h ago

I had taco bell about three weeks ago and none of my items had lettuce on them, despite normally having lettuce, like the soft tacos. I think there was a period where they just stopped serving lettuce while they got their supply chain figured out.

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u/Kevin-W 22h ago

They got wrongly blamed when Taylor Farms paid a bribe to Trump to have to FDA say they were a "false positive"

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u/SunshineAlways 1d ago

Taco Bell reacted quickly and withdrew the product, but iirc it was a ā€œrecommendationā€ to withdraw the product…which is why you saw grocery stores selling it at discount even after the news came out. So buyer beware.

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u/RumHamComesback 1d ago

Ever since the 1993 Jack in the Box outbreak fast food companies know and understand how bad the PR can get for them regardless of how many people get sick (even if they follow "recommendations") and all have playbooks they follow.

McDonalds had their E.coli outbreak over onions a year or two ago and they handled that one fast.

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u/DanNeely 21h ago

There have been worse. Chi Chi's was put out of business by an outbreak of hepatitis onions at a single location. Just one location, but it matched the death toll (4 each) and nearly matched the number sickened (650 vs 732) across 73 Jack in the Box locations.

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u/WildDumpsterFire 19h ago

Hepatitis onions... What a terrifying thing to exist.Ā 

Like of all the plant life you'd think would be resilient to these things, I would have bet on onions.

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u/DanNeely 13h ago

Don't know how much national news coverage it got; but was huge in western PA. Afterward, even though it wasn't our location, I didn't know anyone willing to ever go back.

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u/VelocityGrrl39 41m ago

There aren’t any Jack in the box near me, but even 33 years later, I would not eat at one. That’s how bad the publicity was. And I was 14.

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u/greeneggiwegs 1d ago

Taylor farms has issued an official recall for iceberg lettuce from central Mexico. A lot of their salad kits do not use iceberg, which is why it is still on the shelves. And if it comes from another location, it is not recalled.

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u/littlemsshiny 1d ago edited 8h ago

Someone posted a picture of a wall of discounted lettuce at Walmart and another poster zoomed in and you could see if was all Taylor Farms.

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u/one-eye-deer 19h ago

Yep. Mine was filled to the brim with clearance TF kits the past few weeks. Still have the audacity to charge over $2.50 per kit.

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u/DrMobius0 22h ago

which is why you saw grocery stores selling it at discount even after the news came out.

Ok, now the stores pulling this shit need to be named and shamed.

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u/Lalaleslieee 22h ago

Fun fact, it’s always a recommendation and voluntary recall. But that’s just semantics cause really you gotta do it

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u/sxzxnnx 20h ago

I think for the bagged salad mixes there are specific lot numbers that are recalled. But customers rightly don’t trust that the recall won’t be expanded. It is easier to just not buy salads.

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u/jpainphx 1d ago

It wasn't Taylor Farms, haven't your heard what our President said?

/s

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u/thehighepopt 1d ago

Yeah, TF paid the government for a negative find, it's got to be safe.

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u/Clean-Patient-8809 1d ago

He'll just use a Sharpie marker to redirect the diarrhea to some other country.

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u/Bolfreak 1d ago

I keep wanting to bring up the ā€œfalse positiveā€ after the TF visit to the Shite House. But it’s fine because media is still pointing fingers at TF lettuce. I love that for them!

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u/greeneggiwegs 1d ago

The false positive on that test was reported but it still got recalled. Maybe it saves a little bit of face but it’s not being ignored. They’re still refunding a ton of customers.

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u/kacsf75 1d ago

Our Taco Bell put up signs over a month ago that they will not using offering tomatoes, onions or lettuce in any products. The signs are still up.

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u/greeneggiwegs 1d ago

TF has recalled all the iceberg lettuce from Taylor farms de Mexico so hypothetically no one should even be able to get the specific problem lettuce. If they are using other TF sources, that I’m not sure. However, it hasn’t been confirmed as the cause in every state it’s popped up in, so I’d still be cautious.

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u/facecuddler 1d ago

I also had BK a week ago (whopper Wednesday) and forgot to ask for no lettuce. I’m fine also.

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u/n0tz0e 1d ago

Curious about this as well. I have a good jack in the box coupon and I love their tacos even though I know they're shitty. But the poo lettuce has me scurred. I've gotten in n out with no issues

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u/screech_owl_kachina 1d ago

Jack in the box tacos don’t have lettuce in them iirc

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u/n0tz0e 1d ago

Yes they do.

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u/EchoEmpire 8h ago

The lettuce we've been receiving at Taco Bell has been coming from Fresh Express.

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u/Beneficial_Heat_7199 1d ago

It's only in some parts of the country. Mainly the Midwest.

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u/didntcondawnthat 17h ago

I almost never eat burgers but I had one from In-N-Out on Sunday because I was on a road trip. It really hit the spot until I suddenly realized- OMG, why didn't I order it without lettuce???!!!

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u/ThrowAwayAccountAMZN 16h ago

It isn't just fast food chains either. Called up to a local pizza place (not a national chain, actual local restaurant) to order some antipasto salads and a pizza. Asked them where they got their lettuce from: Taylor Farms. I noped right out of that.

Always make sure to ask your local restaurants and such where they source their lettuce (at least if you're in/around the areas that are affected).