FDA probes Taylor Farms lettuce as cyclosporiasis outbreak widens

The FDA is investigating iceberg lettuce supplied to Taco Bell by Taylor Farms as a possible source in a widening cyclosporiasis outbreak, but officials have not tied the illnesses to any restaurant. That uncertainty is driving fast decisions in stores and kitchens while Michigan health officials say current results point to lettuce or salad greens as a likely source.

The scale of the probe has grown quickly. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued Health Alert Network notice HAN00531 on July 14, 2026, and its outbreak surveillance page lists cases in 34 states. CDC outbreak monitoring and related reporting cited more than 5,100 cases under analysis nationwide, while Michigan reported 3,309 cyclosporiasis infections as of July 14. Earlier reporting in the investigation had put Michigan above 2,600 identified cases.

Taco Bell said it voluntarily and temporarily removed some ingredients at select restaurants as a precautionary measure, and some locations stopped serving lettuce and cilantro. The company’s parent, Yum Brands, saw its shares fall about 2% on the news, showing how quickly a food-safety investigation can hit a restaurant chain before investigators pin down a supplier.

The challenge for federal and state officials is tracing a contaminated ingredient through a national produce system that can send the same product to hundreds of restaurants across several states. Public health investigators have been focused on lettuce and salad greens because Cyclospora outbreaks often start with produce that is distributed broadly and consumed before the source is clear. An earlier 2020 investigation linked illnesses from May 11, 2020, to July 5, 2020, to products containing iceberg lettuce, carrots and red cabbage, underscoring how leafy greens have been implicated before.

Cyclospora can cause severe gastrointestinal illness, often described by patients and reporters as explosive diarrhea, which is one reason outbreaks draw urgent attention even before laboratory tracing is complete. FDA inspectors also visited Taylor Farms de Mexico in 2011 and found no notable issues, a reminder that a past inspection does not rule out a later contamination event in a fast-moving produce supply chain.