Taylor Farms has widened its recall of iceberg lettuce grown in central Mexico to 27 states, including Georgia. The expansion follows a cyclospora outbreak that has sickened at least 1,645 people and hospitalized 141 this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Over the weekend, a lettuce sample the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said tested positive for the parasite turned out, a day later, to be wrong.
The recall never budged. Neither did the scrutiny on Taylor Farms’ supply chain, which this outbreak ties to at least a fourth multistate illness investigation in roughly a decade.
Iceberg Lettuce From Mexico Reaches 27 States
Cyclospora is a microscopic parasite that spreads through food or water contaminated with human feces, and it causes an intestinal illness called cyclosporiasis. The CDC describes the result in blunt terms: watery diarrhea with “frequent and sometimes explosive bowel movements.”
Taylor Fresh Foods, the corporate name behind the Taylor Farms brand, distributed the recalled iceberg lettuce through July 16 to accounts in Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Michigan and 23 other states, after shipping it from June 29 onward. The recall covers 25 shredded lettuce and salad mix products sold under eight different brand codes, plus Marketside-brand iceberg salad and shredded lettuce sold at Walmart. Best if used by dates run as late as Aug. 3.
Sysco, the country’s largest food distributor, pulled every Taylor Farms iceberg product sourced from Mexico and told customers to destroy what they had rather than wait for individual lot numbers.
Confirmed cases sit at 1,645, more than six times the 249 cases reported by this point last year. Of those, 141 people, or about 9%, needed hospital care. No deaths have been reported so far this year, and another 5,100 illnesses are still being sorted to see whether they belong in the count.
FDA’s Positive Test Doesn’t Survive the Weekend
Michigan’s health department, which has driven much of the on-the-ground investigation, analyzed exposure details from 190 people who ate at Taco Bell and shared the results with the CDC. Ingredient level analysis found that 90% of them had eaten iceberg lettuce.
Taylor Farms initiated its recall on Friday, after federal investigators traced the outbreak to what the company called “a specific independent farm” responsible for less than 1% of the country’s iceberg lettuce supply. The company said it was pulling all central Mexico iceberg lettuce nationwide out of an abundance of caution, even though the flagged farm represented a sliver of its total supply.
Then, on Saturday, the FDA reported that a shredded iceberg lettuce sample from Taylor Farms de Mexico had tested positive for cyclospora. By Sunday, the agency reversed itself. “Due to the complexity in detection of Cyclospora, FDA laboratory experts re-reviewed the sample results and have concluded that the finding does not represent true amplification and should be considered a false positive,” the agency said in a statement.
Taylor Farms said the reversal came with an apology. In a statement that declared no confirmed positive test for Cyclospora, the company wrote, “Today, FDA apologized to us.”
On Monday, the FDA said that despite the retraction, its “traceback investigation and outbreak data continue to converge on shredded iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms locations in central Mexico.”
The Disputed Apology
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the FDA’s parent agency, rejected Taylor Farms’ account on Monday. The agency, the spokesperson said, simply “sent Taylor Farms the facts and what was found following the study.”
- Taylor Farms says the FDA apologized directly for the mix-up and insists the agency has never confirmed a positive product sample.
- An HHS spokesperson denies any apology was made, saying the agency only relayed its findings to the company.
- Dr. Céline Gounder, CBS News’ medical correspondent, says the lab error itself is unremarkable and the real problem is how it became public.
Gounder said a false positive is ordinary enough as a laboratory event. What is not ordinary, she said, is the timing. “The unusual thing isn’t the false positive,” Gounder said. “It’s that an unconfirmed single-sample result went public on a Saturday and was withdrawn on a Sunday.”
The question I’d ask FDA is not ‘how did the lab get it wrong’ but ‘what is your policy for announcing a presumptive positive before confirmatory testing closes, and did you follow it?’
Gounder posed that question directly about the agency’s process. The FDA did not immediately respond to CBS News’ inquiry about its protocol for announcing test results before confirmatory analysis is finished.
Walmart, Taco Bell and Jack in the Box Received It
The recalled lettuce did not stay inside one supply chain. Taylor Farms shipped it to food distributors, grocery chains and restaurant brands across 27 states before the recall took hold.
| Company | What Happened |
|---|---|
| Walmart | Pulled four Marketside-brand bagged iceberg lettuce and salad items from stores in more than two dozen states, while saying it had no indication its own shelf stock was affected. |
| Taco Bell | Removed shredded iceberg lettuce from restaurants in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia first, then pulled the ingredient from its supply chain nationwide. |
| Jack in the Box | Received recalled Taylor Farms iceberg lettuce shipments between June 29 and July 16, according to the company’s recall notice. |
| Sysco | Halted distribution of all Taylor Farms iceberg lettuce sourced from Mexico nationwide and told customers to destroy existing stock. |
Consumers reacted before regulators confirmed anything. Foot traffic at Taco Bell locations nationwide fell 19% on the Friday the recall began, compared with the chain’s typical Friday average, according to R.J. Hottovy, head of analytical research at the location analytics firm Placer.ai. Some diners swapped tips online about where they had eaten before falling ill, days before officials named a supplier.
A Pattern That Goes Back to 2013
This is not Taylor Farms’ first brush with cyclospora, or with a fatal outbreak. In 2013, a salad mix from the company’s plant in Guanajuato, Mexico sickened 631 people across 25 states, many of them customers at Olive Garden and Red Lobster locations in Iowa and Nebraska, according to NBC News.
In 2015, the company recalled a celery and onion mix tied to an E. coli outbreak in Costco chicken salad that sickened 19 people, according to food safety attorney Bill Marler, who has represented plaintiffs against Taylor Farms in multiple cases.
The most severe came in 2024. Federal investigators linked Taylor Farms slivered onions to an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak tied to McDonald’s Quarter Pounders that sickened 104 people across 14 states, according to NBC News. Dozens were hospitalized, four people including a child developed severe kidney damage, and one older adult in Colorado died.
This month’s recall marks at least the fourth time in a little over a decade that a Taylor Farms product has been tied to a multistate illness cluster, a recall history now spanning four separate outbreaks. Taylor Farms, founded in 1995 in California’s Salinas Valley, now runs dozens of production facilities across the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Western Europe. “I think it has a lot to do with just being incredibly big and lots of moving parts, lots of things to pay attention to,” Marler told FOX 11 Los Angeles.
Why Is Cyclospora So Hard to Pin Down?
Cyclospora is unusually difficult to trace to a single food because technicians cannot grow the parasite in a lab, standard stool tests often miss it entirely, and the incubation period can stretch up to two weeks, making it hard for sick people to remember exactly what they ate.
The CDC has told clinicians to specifically request Cyclospora testing rather than rely on routine ova and parasite exams, and to consider molecular testing where it is available. Investigators have also identified two separate peaks in illness onset dates this year, raising the possibility that more than one contaminated food event is driving the surge at once.
The gap between state and federal numbers illustrates the same lag. Michigan alone has logged more than 6,000 cyclosporiasis cases this year, according to the state health department, while the CDC’s national confirmed count sits at 1,645. The agency has said the true number of illnesses is likely higher than what has been reported, since many people recover without seeking medical care.
Bill Marler points to a second complication: fewer people watching for the parasite in the first place. He said the CDC made cyclospora reporting optional under its FoodNet surveillance program in July 2025, a change he argues has slowed how quickly investigators can spot a cluster forming. “There aren’t enough boots on the ground to do this kind of work, to figure these outbreaks out fast enough,” Marler said.
What to Do With Lettuce Already in the Fridge
Health officials have specific advice for anyone holding bagged salad right now, and it goes beyond checking for a recall sticker.
- Skip pre-washed bags for now – buy whole heads of lettuce instead of bagged or pre-mixed salad kits while the outbreak continues.
- Toss the outer leaves – remove and discard the outer two to three layers before preparing any lettuce.
- Don’t count on rewashing – rewashing bagged lettuce is unlikely to remove cyclospora once it is there.
- Cook it for certainty – the parasite dies at 158 degrees Fahrenheit, though that is obviously not an option for a salad.
The guidance, issued by Michigan health officials tracking more than 6,000 cases statewide, reflects how little margin for error the parasite leaves once it reaches a kitchen.
The CDC considers cyclosporiasis season to run from May 1 through Aug. 31 each year, though clusters have shown up outside that window before. The outbreak still has more than five weeks to grow before the season formally ends.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should I do if I have Taylor Farms iceberg lettuce at home?
Throw it away in a sealed bag or return it to the store for a refund, then wash and sanitize any containers, cutting boards or surfaces the lettuce touched. Do not try to rinse and save it; cyclospora is not reliably removed by washing alone.
Is Taylor Farms brand lettuce itself part of the recall?
No. The recall is limited to iceberg lettuce grown and processed in central Mexico and sold under private label and food service brands. “No Taylor Farms branded products are involved in this recall,” the company said in its statement, adding that it has stopped sourcing iceberg lettuce from the region for the rest of the growing season.
What are the symptoms of cyclosporiasis, and how long do they last?
The hallmark symptom is watery diarrhea, often paired with loss of appetite, weight loss, bloating, nausea and fatigue, per the CDC. Symptoms usually begin about a week after exposure and, without antibiotic treatment, can last from a few days to more than a month, cycling between remission and relapse.
Can I still eat lettuce at restaurants right now?
Most restaurant lettuce is not implicated in this outbreak, but health officials suggest asking where the lettuce comes from if you are unsure. The CDC’s own guidance is direct: if you do not know the source of the lettuce you are being served, ask before you eat it.
Is cyclosporiasis contagious like a cold or the flu?
No. “The source of this outbreak is what we eat or drink,” said Gwen Biggerstaff, deputy director of the CDC’s Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases. Cyclospora does not spread through casual contact with someone who is already sick.
