Taylor Farms, a major produce supplier, has issued a recall for iceberg lettuce distributed across 27 US states amid concerns it may be contaminated with cyclospora, a parasite tied to widespread diarrheal illnesses nationwide.
In a statement, the company said it is “actively removing” the affected lettuce from the marketplace, has halted shipments of iceberg lettuce from Central Mexico into the United States and is no longer accepting product from the lot under investigation.
“Consumers who have purchased the recalled iceberg lettuce should discard it immediately and not consume it,” Taylor Farms said.
According to Taylor Farms, the recalled shredded iceberg lettuce was shipped between June 29 and July 16 to Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.
The recall notice lists brand abbreviations and certain product details, including use-by dates, but it does not identify specific retailers or full product names. Taylor Farms has also said that Taylor Farms-branded salads and kits are not connected to the outbreak, and that its branded salad kits do not contain iceberg lettuce.
“At this time, Taylor Fresh Foods has not publicly provided distribution information or a list of customers who received the product that was voluntarily removed from the market,” the US Food and Drug Administration said in a Friday update.
Federal health investigators have connected a sizable cyclospora outbreak in the Midwest to shredded iceberg lettuce supplied by Taylor Farms and served at select Taco Bell locations in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia and Kentucky. Taco Bell said Friday it has pulled the lettuce from those restaurants and removed it from its national supply chain.
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The FDA noted that additional states could be added to the recall list as officials gather more information.
Restaurant food distributor Sysco said it had already taken action on Taylor Farms iceberg lettuce from Mexico.
“Sysco proactively removed all Taylor Farms processed iceberg lettuce products from Mexico from distribution and instructed customers to destroy them after learning regulators indicated a suspected link between Taylor Farms’ lettuce and a five-state Cyclospora outbreak,” a spokesperson said in a statement Saturday.
People with cyclosporiasis may have symptoms that include watery diarrhea, cramping and bloating for weeks, which can lead to dehydration. Cases of the intestinal illness caused by a microscopic parasite are surging across the US, with nearly 7,000 confirmed or under investigation in 34 states since May 1, according to data published this week by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Federal health officials said there are multiple investigations underway – some tied to the large outbreak in the Midwest, some involving single states and some involving cases not yet tied to any cluster.
So far, the outbreak linked to the lettuce is considered to be a regional one, centered in the Midwest. The Michigan state health department has reported more than 5,000 cases of cyclosporiasis during the outbreak investigation. The state health department said that it “cannot say with certainty that every illness is linked to the same source of exposure” but that the concentrated, sharp increase in cases “strongly suggests that the vast majority of these illnesses are associated with the same outbreak.” This would make it the largest cyclospora outbreak in the US on record.
Taylor Farms produce has also been linked with previous illness outbreaks, including E. coli cases tied to slivered onions in 2024 and cyclospora cases linked with lettuce in 2013.
