Former US Food and Drug Administration commissioner Dr Scott Gottlieb has said it was "not standard operating procedure" for produce giant Taylor Farms to contact the White House seeking to delay a recall announcement tied to a large cyclospora outbreak. According to a Wall Street Journal report, Taylor Farms representatives asked the White House for more time before federal investigators publicly linked the company to the multi-state outbreak, with officials arguing that laboratory evidence was insufficient and that the government was overstating their responsibility. The episode adds to concerns about the handling of the outbreak, which has sickened thousands with cyclospora — a parasite causing severe gastrointestinal illness — and has been marked by contradictory public messaging from both the FDA and the company over the status and scope of the recall.