The cyclospora outbreak that has sickened thousands in the U.S. is drawing renewed attention to a decades long shift in how fresh food moves through the country. While investigators work to identify the original source of contamination, some food safety experts say the industry's centralized sourcing and distribution networks after a wave of consolidation can help turn what once may have been an isolated contamination event into a multistate outbreak.

"The general trends that have taken place in the food industry, the way in which food has been sourced, and then distributed has played some role here," said Dr. David Relman, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford University. With the cyclospora parasite's long incubation period, the difficulty in tracking its path and what some experts have criticized as a bumpy federal response have all played a role in the widening outbreak, some experts say the structure of the food system has also contributed.

Relman said consolidation has changed both how produce is processed and how widely it is distributed. "It's possible that as food sourcing and distribution becomes consolidated you get pooling and then redistribution of what might have been a very local contamination problem, so that it now becomes a widely distributed contamination problem," Relman said. Marion Nestle, professor emerita of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University, said the shrinking of the industry has amplified the consequences when contamination occurs.

"Consolidation means that if something goes wrong, it goes wrong big time," Nestle said. Centralized processing can further expand the reach of an outbreak, she said. The current FDA investigation around cyclosporiasis has focused on shredded iceberg lettuce distributed through Taylor Farms' foodservice business, an ingredient that reached Taco Bell restaurants and other foodservice customers across multiple states.

Relman referenced bagged lettuce as one example of how changes in distribution could spread a foodborne illness. "Think of the difference between one head of lettuce and a bag of chopped lettuce that may have come from many, many heads," he said. "These bags are now being produced in huge numbers and distributed in far-flung distribution networks." Consolidation in the supply chain The industry's evolution toward fewer distributors has been driven in part by a push for efficiency.

Nestle said those improvements for businesses come with tradeoffs for food safety. "Big is not necessarily better," she said. "The bigger the supplier, the greater the opportunity for contamination." Over the past several decades, U.S.

agriculture and food distribution have steadily consolidated as companies pursue greater efficiency and national scale, according to the USDA. For example, Taylor Farms, the salad producer under scrutiny for the recent cyclospora outbreak, has seen significant expansion through a series of acquisitions over the last decade — including Earthbound Farm in 2019, Curation Foods in 2021 and most recently Equinox Growers in March. Meanwhile, restaurant supply has become increasingly concentrated too, with broadline distributors like Sysco, US Foods and Performance Food Group serving hundreds of thousands of restaurants and institutional kitchens nationwide.