Who knew?
Not standard' for Taylor Farms to ask White House to delay cyclospora recall, ex-FDA head says
Source: The Guardian
Sun 26 Jul 2026 16.01 EDT
Last modified on Sun 26 Jul 2026 16.02 EDT
Former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Dr Scott Gottlieb said on Sunday that it was “not standard operating procedure” for Taylor Farms to ask the White House to intervene as the company prepared to announce a recall tied to a massive cyclospora outbreak.
Appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation, Gottlieb was asked about a report from the Wall Street Journal that Taylor Farms contacted the White House seeking to delay a recall announcement while federal investigators were preparing to publicly link the company to the multi-state outbreak.
“It was not standard operating procedure,” Gottlieb said. “And it wasn’t standard operating procedure when I was at FDA.” “I dealt with outbreaks in romaine lettuce and spinach as well, E coli in spinach and romaine lettuce. I never heard from the White House on those things, other than to have discussions to inform them of what we were doing, so that they were properly briefed and could respond to questions that they were getting,” Gottlieb said. “So it’s unusual.”
According to the Journal, representatives for Taylor Farms contacted the White House requesting more time before the government publicly linked the company to the outbreak. The report said the White House asked FDA officials to join the call, during which Taylor Farms argued that federal investigators lacked positive laboratory evidence connecting its products to the outbreak and expressed concerns that the government was overstating the company’s responsibility. The company sought the meeting after executives believed they had not received sufficient clarity from the FDA about the evidence supporting a potential recall and its scope, according to a person familiar with the matter cited by the Journal.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/26/taylor-farms-white-house-cyclospora-recall
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