What happened
Health officials are “investigating” whether restaurant chain Taco Bell “played a role” in the ongoing multistate outbreak of cyclosporiasis, The Washington Post said. The foodborne parasitic infection can cause explosive diarrhea and is suspected to have sickened nearly 7,000 people across at least 34 states. 

Who said what
Salad greens could be “a potential source for this outbreak,” Michigan’s health department said in a statement. But no “specific food item” has been “confirmed” as the culprit, said the Centers for Disease Control. The public is “largely flying blind” about what foods to avoid, CBS News said. Taco Bell said it has started “voluntarily and temporarily” removing some ingredients from select restaurants “as a precautionary measure.” 

What next?
Taco Bell said it will continue to “closely monitor the situation and follow the guidance of public health authorities.”  The CDC is analyzing lab data “to find a signal connecting the cases,” said Gwen Biggerstaff, deputy director of the CDC’s division of foodborne, waterborne and environmental diseases. She added that reports of new cyclosporiasis infections will likely continue through August.  

What happened
China yesterday reported “one of its lowest quarterly growth rates in decades,” the Financial Times said. From April to June, the world’s second-largest economy grew just 4.3%, compared to the same period last year — below economists’ projections of 4.5% and down from 5% growth in the first quarter.

Who said what
This is a “rare admission of economic weakness for China,” CNN said. Despite “surging exports buoyed by the AI boom,” the country still faces a “weak domestic economy and sluggish consumer spending,” The Wall Street Journal said. “Tensions with trade partners, including the U.S. and the European Union,” also remain, CNBC said. Focusing heavily on exports while domestic demand falters is “really quite unsustainable, to be frank,” said Alicia Garcia-Herrero, an economist with financial firm Natixis. 

What next?
Such “disappointing growth” is likely to fuel calls for government stimulus measures, “including a policy rate cut,” CNBC said. The ruling Communist Party’s policymaking body meets later this month and “the extent of the slowdown will likely dominate the agenda,” said Bloomberg.

One of the world’s most important commodities is suffering a “huge disruption” in supply, said Javier Blas at Bloomberg — the “humble anchovy.” The tiny fish may sound “utterly mundane,” but it’s at the “bottom of a crucial chain.”

Anchovies are the main ingredient in fishmeal, which is used to feed farmed seafood like salmon and prawns. They are a “critical part” of the global food supply chain, said food economist Mike von Massow at Global News. About two-thirds of the fish and seafood we consume is farmed using fishmeal. 

But a drop in the catch has caused global fishmeal production to plummet by an estimated 40% in a year. Prices are now up 80% since last year to an “all-time high,” said Blas, threatening a knock-on effect on the global aquaculture industry and food prices. The culprit is this year’s El Niño.

Most tinned anchovies come from Mediterranean fisheries. But fishmeal is primarily made with the South American species, anchoveta. Peru is the “Saudi Arabia of anchovies,” said Blas. Combined with Ecuador and Chile, the catch there accounts for nearly a third of the world’s fishmeal production.

Around Peru, the “unusually warm waters” in the Pacific, linked to El Niño, have dramatically reduced the anchovy population, said The Times. The weather pattern “reduces the nutrient-rich upwellings on which the fish depend.”

The “anchovy crisis” is a reminder of the “surprising ways in which the world is wired today,” where weather in Peru can increase fish costs in European supermarkets, said Blas. It’s also a “warning sign that El Niño will have significant impacts on global food prices — far greater than those from the war in Iran.”