The biggest outbreak of cyclospora food poisoning in the history of the country was declared over on Friday — but a new contagion tied to broccoli sprouts may be spreading.
Officials with the Food and Drug Administration said they were sure all the recalled iceberg lettuce removed because of the cyclospora outbreak was off the market.
However, the produce aisle is still cause for concern.
Public health officials are investigating a multistate outbreak of salmonella linked to broccoli sprouts produced by Evergreen Fresh Sprouts. To date, 22 have been sickened, with two of them hospitalized, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Idaho-based Evergreen Fresh Sprouts voluntarily recalled cases of the product in its home state, Montana, Utah, and Washington.
It was feared that they had salmonella bovismorbificans, a kind of bacteria that causes bloody diarrhea.
The cyclospora outbreak began in July, with the feds getting reports of almost 20,000 lab-confirmed cases of infection — many times more than the number of cases at the same time last year. There were over 6,100 suspected cases, too.
Two people died and another 570 were hospitalized due to the disgusting infection — which which causes debilitating diarrhea, vomiting and bloating — according to the CDC.
California-based Taylor Farms’ Mexican operations were implicated in the outbreak, which hit Taco Bell restaurants particularly hard and decimated lettuce sales overall.
Numerous people got sick after eating at Taco Bells in Michigan, Ohio and other locales.
At the peak of the outbreak, more than 1,000 infections occurred in a single day, the government said, adding that fewer than two infections per day were found in August.
Hundreds of victims have sued Taco Bell and Taylor Farms. They can expect to collect tens of thousands of dollars for their pain and suffering in the coming months, as The Post previously reported.
Taylor Farms initially challenged the government’s findings that its lettuce was contaminated and claimed the FDA “apologized” to them about conflicting test results for its produce, adding that the agency made a “mistake.”
The FDA insisted that it did not apologize to Taylor Farms, noting that the company recalled 236,192 cases of salad due to potential contamination.
The feds said Friday they were continuing to investigate the outbreak.
The second-worst year for cyclospora infections was 2019, when around 4,700 cases were found around the country.