FDA inspectors found the parasite cyclospora in a wastewater tank and a drainage ditch used for lettuce cultivation at a farm in Guanajuato, Mexico, that the agency linked to a U.S. illness outbreak.
The FDA said it still cannot determine how the parasite entered lettuce at the Taylor Farms facility. Its investigation is closed. The outbreak, which U.S. officials declared over last month, caused nearly 13,000 cases of diarrhea and other illnesses across the country.
Taylor Farms attributed the contamination identified by the FDA to an independent grower it no longer uses. The company said its central Mexico facility remains closed while it works on additional safety measures.
Mexican food safety regulators said in August that their investigation found no cyclospora in lettuce or water at the facility. Days earlier, the FDA had withdrawn an incorrect test result for a lettuce sample collected at the border. Cyclospora is a microscopic parasite that commonly causes watery diarrhea, according to the CDC.
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