Of course, I know there is a recall but I am not convinced it is warranted or appropriately directed. Furthermore, the claim of a "spike" in cases is also tenuous. The FDA's CVM has also not taken a definitive stance. I happen to know Steve Sudlof, and a board certified toxicologist, he too is skeptical. This is not like the alfatoxin in dogfood a year ago where the liver disease compatible with aflatoxin poisoning was identified in dozens of cases and the aflatoxin was also identified in dozens of dogfood samples from the same households.
But since they don't know, with certainty:
(a) what the toxin is,
(b) what ingredient(s) are contaminated with the toxin,
(c) where/who produced the contaminated food,
(d) during what timeframe the contaminated food was produced, and
(e) what specific lot numbers are contaminated,
then by default the recall(s) are much broader and less-appropriately-directed than they should/could be.
I'm a scientist too, and I agree there are PLENTY of questions yet to ask and be answered. But just because the mystery hasn't been solved yet doesn't make it any less real. There's a good deal of over-reacting, panic, confusion, and so forth happening right now due to the unknowns. The same thing happens every time there is an e-coli outbreak before they determine the cause and the source. It doesn't usually take quite this long when it's an e-coli outbreak in humans though. So the uncertainty here is allowing a bit of a snowball effect to occur. Once they identify, with certainty, the toxin, the source ingredient, the supplier, the product manufacturers, the dates of production, and the product codes, then we'll have some definitive info and a specific and more refined course of action.
For now, I'm of the opinion that it's better to be safe than sorry. Certainly if this was the human food supply, most everyone would be acting on that same premise (better safe than sorry). And we might have quicker answers if it was the human food supply that was affected.