Today, the Food and Drug Administration published a draft guidance explaining how the agency plans to publish the names of retailers involved in food recalls. This information, long advocated for by CSPI, is necessary for consumers to understand whether they have purchased food that may be dangerous. Until now, the FDA has only released retailer information rarely and without a clear policy.
The Food and Drug Administration should publish the names of retailers who received romaine lettuce covered in the recent Fresh Express recall. The romaine was implicated in a Cyclospora outbreak traced to McDonald’s salads. So far, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 286 people in 15 states have become ill in the outbreak. There have been 11 hospitalizations and no deaths.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, The Pew Charitable Trusts and five other organizations pressed the FDA in a letter today to take action in light of the still unsolved multistate outbreak of E. coli infections linked to romaine lettuce that has sickened more than 170 people and caused one death.
