WASHINGTON — Andrew & Williamson Fresh Produce, the company linked to an ongoing cucumber outbreak, said it will start harvesting and shipping cucumbers from another region of Mexico starting the week of Sept. 21.

The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention reported Sept. 15 that 77 more illnesses appear to be linked to Mexican cucumbers distributed by the company, and that health officials picked up the outbreak strain on cucumbers sampled at the company’s facility.

As of Sept.15, CDC said 418 people in 31 states have been reported to be infected with the outbreak strains of Salmonella Poona. So far, the outbreak has resulted in 91 hospitalizations and is blamed for two deaths in California and Texas.

CDC cautions that illnesses reported after Aug. 22 might not be recorded yet due to the time it takes between when a person becomes ill and the illness is reported.

States identified “slicer” or “American” cucumbers as a common food eaten by ill people and traced back to San Diego-based Andrew & Williamson.

The company on Sept. 4 recalled products produced in Baja California and sold under the “Limited Edition” label between Aug. 1 and Sept. 3. The labeling on these cases indicates the product was grown and packed by Rancho Don Juanito in Mexico.

“As soon as we received information from health officials that our product may be the source of this outbreak, we took immediate action to cease all harvesting and packing operations at this facility and to recall product from the market,” the company said in a Sept. 10 press statement.

“We are currently conducting a thorough evaluation of our cucumber farming and packing operations to determine if we can find the root cause of how this might have happened,” the company added. “We are looking at all control processes and completely scrubbing and cleaning the facility. The health and welfare of consumers is our highest priority and we spend millions of dollars on food safety at A&W. We want to get to the bottom of this as much as anyone.”

Dave Murray of A&W told The Produce News that cucumber operations immediately shutdown in the field and in the packing shed as inspectors in Mexico and FDA checked facilities and the company hired an outside expert to take a look at its operations.

“We will start harvesting cucumbers at the end of the week in a completely different farm and packing facility,” he said Sept. 16. “It’s a different farm area, different district and different packing area,” he stressed.

The company is discussing best ways to package the products, and shipments are expected to start at the beginning of the week of Sept. 21, Murray said, adding, “We are very confident about our product.”

On Sept. 11, Custom Produce Sales recalled “Fat Boy” brand cucumbers, which it received from Andrew & Williamson and sold in California, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Texas. Unlabeled cucumbers sold in Nevada as of Aug.1 are also covered in the recall.

William Marler, founder of the Seattle law firm Marler Clark, said this week he filed his sixth lawsuit against the company on behalf of victims of the outbreak.

In the meantime, state health agencies and agriculture departments have been testing cucumbers for Salmonella at retail locations.

Since Sept. 9, CDC announced Arizona and Montana authorities have isolated Salmonella Poona in cucumbers distributed by the San Diego firm.

The San Diego County Health & Human Services Agency also isolated one of the outbreak strains from cucumbers collected at the company’s facility, CDC reported.

When the outbreak was first reported, CDC said it consulted with four industry experts early in the investigation, on Aug. 26, to obtain information on harvesting and distribution in the affected region.

“The consultants provided information regarding crop production and distribution practices that helped assess the plausibility of cucumbers and other produce items as possible outbreak sources,” CDC said earlier this month.