Investigators for the FDA and CDC have indicated that the E. coli-contaminated lettuce that sickened customers at Northeast Taco Bell restaurants in November and December of 2006 came from California’s Central Valley. The Taco Bell outbreak was reported just before an outbreak at Taco John’s locations in the Midwest, which was also traced to lettuce grown in the Central Valley.
In an article for the Salinas Californian, Brian Tumulty reported that FDA was continuing its investigation and that a final investigation report into the Taco Bell E. coli outbreak would not be published for at least another month, while a report on last fall’s E. coli outbreak traced to baby spinach will be issued before then.