American consumers are deserting fast food chains whose menus include lettuce, in the face of the cyclosporosis epidemic raging in the United States.
• Also read: “The FDA made a mistake”: Taylor Farms iceberg lettuce falsely positive for cyclosporosis
• Also read: Explosive diarrhea outbreak: Taco Bell says lettuce has been removed from its restaurants in Canada
• Also read: Explosive diarrhea in the United States: Taylor Farms “voluntarily withdraws” certain lettuces
Last week, lettuce supplied to Taco Bell restaurants was singled out as a potential source of contamination.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) returned to this accusation on Monday, revealing that the sample tested ultimately turned out to be a false positive.
According to a CNN analysis, distrust of Taco Bell had already set in as of July 15, with a drop in attendance of 16.9% compared to the annual daily average.
Following the announcement by the federal authorities, this decline further increased, reaching nearly 19%, despite the withdrawal of lettuce from restaurants.
Other brands suffered the same fate. Data from Placer.ai, reported by CNN, shows that Panera Bread, Chipotle, Subway and Chopt all saw declines in traffic.
Subway saw its customer base drop 19.2% on July 16 compared to the pre-pandemic average, while Chipotle and Panera Bread showed a decrease of about 10%.
“We continue to monitor the Cyclospora investigation very closely and, at this time, we do not believe that the ingredients we use are linked to this contamination,” Chipotle’s head of corporate affairs and food safety told the American media in a statement.
To date, the exact origin of the epidemic remains unknown.
