FDA: Red Lobster, Olive Garden served salad contaminated with cyclospora parasite from Mexican facility, possibly via feces-laden water

The salad mix was served at Red Lobsters and Olive Gardens in Nebraska and Iowa and was traced by the FDA to Taylor Farms de Mexico, part of Salinas, Calif.-based Taylor Farms. More than 400 in 16 states including hundreds in Nebraska and Iowa have been sickened by a recent outbreak of cyclosporiasis, caused by the Cyclospora cayetanensis parasite and associated with severe diarrhea, fatigue, cramps and a lack of appetite, among other symptoms.
     Darden Restaurants, the parent company of Olive Garden and Red Lobster, released a statement Friday saying, in part, that “nothing we have seen prior to this announcement gave us any reason to be concerned about the products we’ve received from this supplier” and that "it is completely safe to eat in our restaurants.”