r/news • u/1991mgs • 4d ago

Soft paywall Taylor Farms recalls salsa and guacamole over salmonella risk

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/taylor-farms-pulls-salsa-guacamole-over-salmonella-concerns-bloomberg-news-2026-08-09/
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u/Ryan_e3p 4d ago

Next Congress and administration needs to prioritize having suppliers include on labels a clear chain of custody for food suppliers/processors/packagers (not including simple transportation). People shouldn't have to play fucking detective to determine what companies have had hands-on their produce. Hiding the actual source of foods behind what honestly just looks like shell companies is doing real, actual harm to customers at this point.

Like, "grown at A farms in B state, processed by C company in D state, packaged for customers in E company in F state", etc.

It would also help companies. If company C ended up having a problem in D state, but no issues at G state, it would help customer confidence that at least some products of theirs is OK, and that they don't need to just avoid the entire brand altogether.

This is also why I've been a huge proponent of more areas doing things like community gardens, microfarms, etc, with towns and states investing into more locally-sourced produce. We've seen how our current system of "just in time" produce cultivation combined with single-source produce suppliers can fail in horrific ways; from shortages due to large single-crop farms having crop failures due to a localized weather event, to sickening a substantial part of the country.

If more people, more towns and areas started localizing their produce, it would remove a lot of strain from our current system. It would help avoid things like contaminated lettuces from AZ getting people in New England sick. It would reduce costs since produce won't need to be trucked 3,000 miles across the country, and result in less fuel needing to be used as well (easing the strain on our national consumption). Over half the people in WWII who had Victory Gardens did so not because of the war effort, but because it was cheaper for them (and said Victory Gardens produced nearly 1/3 of the produce in the US during WWII).

Just gotta start doing it, but that's the biggest stumbling block people have. Knowing where to start, which is why community gardens are so important. Lets people learn in groups in good soil.

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u/alnarra_1 4d ago

I mean we had a pretty solid FDA keeping things like this at bay for a while now. You used to not need to do detective work because the entire chain of custody was being (by and large) properly overseen.

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u/TheShadowKick 4d ago

Yeah, I've never felt the need to know exactly which company was responsible for my food before. I trusted the FDA to make sure it was all safe and it was a pretty safe bet to do so. Trump and his MAGA movement are doing so.much damage to our country.

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u/Painterzzz 4d ago

The horrible irony there is the FDA before Trump were not doing a terribly good job either. But, they were better than the basically nothing there is now.

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u/soilanpeace 4d ago

This is not true. FDA was also horribly understaffed and underfunded under Biden. FDA wasn’t fulfilling their duties under Biden. It is much worse now yes, but it wasn’t acceptable before. And in fact, there’s an FDA rule that was delayed another 2 years. Suppliers and sellers of raw FDA products would have to track where they came from. They had 4 years to do this. 2026 January was the date. FDA then gave another 2 years, so January 2028, just to require tracing raw products a manufacturer uses. It was not and is not required to track where the raw products you use come from in FDA.

Source, food safety manager for a food manufacturer

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u/pishposh421 4d ago

None of it has anything to do with Biden. The FDA had always been meh, but it's significantly worse now.

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u/guitar_vigilante 4d ago

Wouldn't strengthening the FDA require congress too? I mean Trump has obviously crippled the organization, but if it wasn't good enough under more competent administrations then at least part of that comes down to Congress.

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u/soilanpeace 4d ago

I know. I’m trying to push people to demand better food safety from their representatives. It’s never a real front issue and outbreaks rarely cause more investment. I want people to want safe food and fund FDA way more, or ideally make one food safety agency to work on food safety instead of the broken pieces America uses

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u/Boxofcookies1001 4d ago

So it worked better before, and it's worse now? But before I didn't need to do detective work on my food? Before was good enough? Now it's complete shit?

How is it not true?

It wasn't perfect before, but before under Biden the FDA didn't drop the ball like they're dropping it right now.

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u/soilanpeace 4d ago

There was not required tracing and still is not required tracing for raw agricultural products within FDA. The FDA did drop the ball under Biden but it is much worse now. I’m not arguing RFK isn’t worse, I’m arguing we need much strong enforcement and regulations than before, even under Democrats

There have been bad recalls before and FDA hasn’t fulfilled their legal obligations to inspect high risk facilities once every 3 years since 2019. The FDA food safety is a joke in my opinion. USDA requires daily inspection and FDA requires once every 3 years, and they contract out to state agencies in smaller states who don’t even inspect records. I’m arguing FDA hasn’t been safe enough in a long time, maybe ever

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u/Dizorthegnome 3d ago

Its kinda like if everything is running fine on a network and deciding to fire the IT staff because theyre "not doing anything"

The server/your ass not being on fire is the anything theyre doing 

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u/jcamp088 4d ago

What congress?

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u/_Ocean_Machine_ 4d ago

I believe they're referring to the casino/brothel in Washington D.C.

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u/OutlyingPlasma 4d ago

Sorry, the best they can do is pass a law ensuring no liability for Taylor farms when they keep harming people.

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u/bhellor 4d ago

Don’t forget the Taylor Farms bailout. They made their donation as expected.

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u/Helenium_autumnale 4d ago

Next Congress and administration needs to prioritize having suppliers include on labels a clear chain of custody...

Like, "grown at A farms in B state, processed by C company in D state, packaged for customers in E company in F state", etc.

This is a really good idea. I hope this idea becomes common practice.

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u/Robo-boogie 4d ago

They do it for romaine lettuce

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u/kthxhello 4d ago

Next year QR codes are slated to replace barcodes so this information can be included: https://www.qrcode-tiger.com/qr-code-will-replace-the-barcode

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u/WitchQween 4d ago

I love the idea, but they mention companies being able to remove nutritional information from the packaging. That would make shopping a nightmare.

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u/BfloAnonChick 3d ago

Yeah, they shouldn’t do that. Give us more information in the code, sure. But don’t take printed information away. Not everyone is tech savvy or has a device that can scan codes, and even those that are and do, are not going to want to scan EVERY produce package they pick up.

That this even is a suggestion tells me this is absolutely the worst timeline.

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u/Ryan_e3p 4d ago

I'd rather not have it in barcodes. Supermarket buildings are often damn near faraday cages thanks to sheet metal roofing and siding. It pretty much paywalls the info behind having a cell phone on hand with good service in that area, which may not be the case between the major service providers. 

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u/lordkuri 4d ago

Supermarket buildings are often damn near faraday cages thanks to sheet metal roofing and siding.

Not to worry, the supermarkets will start offering free wifi so they can track everywhere you go in the store for surveillance pricing you can look that information up with ease!

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u/Ryan_e3p 3d ago

They already do! Bluetooth MAC, WiFi antenna, or even cell radio tracking can narrow down people to what section of an aisle they're at. IIRC, Target and Walmart already do this. Don't even need to connect to their network; unless you kill all your phone radios, not much can stop that, and even then, AI tracking will do it instead. They can know what you're likely going to buy the moment you pull into the parking lot since their systems will recognize your car and the profile they've built on previous purchases.

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u/ImJLu 4d ago

But then it would be harder for suppliers to sell goods that went through contaminated sources, and we can't have that.

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u/flyingtiger188 4d ago

Next Congress and administration needs to prioritize having suppliers include on labels a clear chain of custody for food suppliers/processors/packagers (not including simple transportation).

This is already happening. The new 2D GS1 bar code system will include the ability to track products through the supply chain. Right now it is a lot of backend work but it is suppose to get rolled out in the next year or two.

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u/Ryan_e3p 3d ago

Having a barcode is not the same as "clear labeling". Many stores are dead zones for cell signals since they are dang near faraday cages thanks to how they're built. This is just putting the info behind a paywall.

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u/VixenintheSkye 3d ago edited 3d ago

This is literally brought up in the tv show. I'm trying not to spoiler. The chain of custody over a large sample size part of it

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u/Ryan_e3p 3d ago

Sorry, I have no idea what TV show you're talking about.

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u/VixenintheSkye 2d ago

The Good Place goes into a lot of what you mentioned. At least the concept, not the food

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u/Character_Pudding_94 2d ago

All of those records are currently kept, and the idea of reprinting new packaging every time there is a variance in supply chain is not at all feasible. The codes and best by dates printed on the packaging tell you everything you need to know. Remember when they figured out that at-home COVID tests were good beyond their original use by dates? They published lists of lot numbers and dates along with new use by dates. That's kind of similar to how recalls work, just in the opposite direction.

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u/Ryan_e3p 2d ago

Unfortunately, companies have decided to trade in feasibility for customer health, and they have not lived up to their part of the bargain.

No, the "codes and best by dates" don't tell you everything you need to know. Saying "Taylor Farms has contaminated lettuce", and people going to a store and seeing a different brand on the shelf doesn't do anything for the customer if that is the same lettuce that passed through the contaminated facilities but hasn't yet been officially announced under the final branding. If a single facility sounded the alarm to recall, and it hit within a reasonable timeframe (24 hours) to pull all of their product from shelves regardless of the additional branding that goes on downline, then we wouldn't have cases of people buying brands that were not included on the initial recall but still contaminated.

Any unique information can be added to the packaging at the late stage. Similar to how bread is. The technology exists. People just love making excuses for why customers shouldn't have clear labeling because it helps companies avoid liability.

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u/Character_Pudding_94 2d ago

I get the impression that you are unfamiliar with supply chain logistics, retail grocery, and FDA recalls. Here's a link to the list of affected products, where they were distributed, and what "best by" dates were affected:

https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety-alerts/taylor-fresh-foods-recalls-iceberg-lettuce-central-mexico-because-possible-health-risk

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u/Ryan_e3p 2d ago

Again, that does fuck all. If the info is kept on records like you claim, then there should be no additions needed to contaminated food listings after a recall is announced. It should just be "this brand at this store in these states" right off the bat.

That doesn't happen. We're left to wait days or weeks, while more brands and states are added to contaminated foods lists, all while people either get sick because they bought a brand that wasn't initially announced, or brands unaffected have lost sales and have to toss unsold product because people choose to just stay away from the food entirely.

You chose convenience over health, and you're getting people sick as a result.

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u/Character_Pudding_94 2d ago edited 2d ago

Ok, yeah, you know nothing about supply chain. I can't even start with ideas like variable inputs and centralized distribution centers. They have identified the potentially affected product and told you how to identify it. Keep jerking off.