‘Not standard’ for Taylor Farms to ask White House to delay cyclospora recall, ex-FDA head says

Taylor Farms products are displayed for sale at a grocery store in Washington DC on 24 July. Photograph: Nathan Howard/Reuters

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 huge 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.