SAN FRANCISCO — The Food and Drug Administration says a California farm is recalling a vegetable mix believed to be the source of E.coli in Costco chicken salad that has been linked to an outbreak that has sickened 19 people in seven states.
Craig Wilson, Costco vice president of food safety and quality assurance, said he was told by the Food and Drug Administration that the strain of E. coli seems to be connected to an onion and celery mix.
The FDA said Thursday that Taylor Farms Pacific of Tracy, Calif., recalled a mix of celery and onion used in Costco chicken salad and other foods.
Costco says it uses one supplier for those vegetables in the chicken salad sold in all its U.S. stores.
A message left with Taylor Farms was not immediately returned.
The number of people sickened in the outbreak will likely grow over the next few weeks, even though the product has been removed from store shelves, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday.
The spread of foodborne illness takes time to track, especially when it’s happening in multiple states, said Dr. Robert Tauxe, deputy director of the CDC’s Division of Foodborne, Waterborne and Environmental Diseases.
State health officials, particularly those in Utah, discovered the outbreak and helped find links between the 19 illnesses in seven states, Tauxe said.
“Very quickly they noticed these people did have something in common. They really liked and ate the rotisserie chicken salad,” he said.
The big-box retailer based in Issaquah pulled the chicken salad off store shelves nationwide, posted signs in its stores and provided detailed purchase logs to the CDC to help it track who bought the product and where the salad ingredients came from, Tauxe said.
Costco worked closely with the CDC, FDA and local health officials to find the source of the E. coli, Wilson said.
“We feel terrible about the people who got sick,” he said.
The strain of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli can be life-threatening, but no deaths have been reported. Five people have been hospitalized, including two with kidney failure. The CDC has been told they are all getting better, Tauxe said.
The CDC has identified a DNA fingerprint of the E. coli strain connecting all 19 patients. As health departments get more reports of foodborne illness, additional people will be checked for the fingerprint, Tauxe said. Tauxe emphasized that the agency does not have any evidence that other Costco food was contaminated.
Wilson said chickens have not been connected to the outbreak, and no other Costco products use the same other ingredients found in the chicken salad.
“We’re pretty confident the path that everyone seems to be on is correct,” he said.
Investigators were testing food removed from the stores, including chicken salad and other products, and talking to those who have gotten sick. All but two have reported eating the chicken salad made and sold by the retailer.
Six people got sick in Montana, five in Utah, four in Colorado, and one each in California, Missouri, Virginia and Washington state. The CDC said the illness reports began on Oct. 6 and involved people from age 5 to 84.
