This was markedly higher than the past two years, and that some of the illnesses reflect restaurant clusters linked to contaminated basil and cilantro.
In a separate development yesterday, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said that testing of bagged salad mix ingredients revealed two positive samples in domestically grown romaine lettuce, marking the second such instance involving US-grown produce.
Past outbreaks have involved a variety of imported produce, including basil, cilantro, mesclun lettuce, raspberries, and snow peas.
Cidrap.umn.edu reports on the CDC statement that only 35% of the illnesses were linked to two large, high-profile multistate outbreaks, one involving pre-packaged vegetable trays and the other salads sold at McDonald's. Some of the other illnesses were part of clusters involving other types of fresh produce, two involving basil and at least three others linked to cilantro.
