With 400 ill, information on outbreak still lagging

LINCOLN, Neb. - Nearly 400 people across the country have been sickened by cyclospora, a lengthy intestinal illness usually contracted by eating contaminated food. But if you're looking to find out exactly where it came from, you may be out of luck.

Federal officials warned Wednesday that it was too early to say whether the outbreak of the rare parasite reported in at least 15 states - including one case in Mercer County, N.J. - was over.

Health officials in Nebraska and Iowa say they have traced cases there to prepackaged salad. They have not revealed the company that packaged the salad or where it was sold, explaining only that most if not all was not grown locally.

The lack of information has fueled concern from consumers and food-safety advocates who argue that companies should be held accountable when outbreaks happen and that customers need the information.

Mark Hutson, who owns a Save-Mart grocery in Lincoln, Neb., said he was unaware of customers who had raised concern about the product, which was unusual in situations involving foodborne illnesses. But Hutson said the lack of specific brand information threatened to hurt all providers, including the good actors.

"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. "Frankly, we would prefer to have the names out there."

Authorities said they still hadn't determined whether the cases of cyclospora in the different states were connected.

"It's too early to say for sure whether it's over, and thus too early to say there's no risk of still getting sick," said María-Belén Moran, spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Only Iowa and Nebraska officials had directly linked the outbreak in their states to a salad mix of iceberg and romaine lettuce, carrots, and red cabbage.

The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that it did not have enough information to name a possible source of the outbreak. In the past, the agencies have at times declined to ever name a source of an outbreak, referring to "Restaurant A" or using vague terms.

Caroline Smith DeWaal of the Center for Science in the Public Interest says that the decision to withhold a company's name may hurt not only consumers but the food industry too. When an item is generally implicated but officials give few specifics, like with the bagged salad, people may stop buying the product altogether.