420. The Association

Taylor Farms, the California-based produce company, has issued a statement clarifying that no Taylor Farms branded salads or kits are associated with the cyclospora outbreak that has sickened more than 1,644 people across five Midwest states and hospitalized 94 of them, making it the worst cyclospora outbreak on record in the United States.

Taylor Farms is preparing a recall.

(These are not contradictory statements. Taylor Farms sells branded salad kits, which they have confirmed are not the product under investigation. Taylor Farms also grows and supplies bulk iceberg lettuce to Taco Bell restaurants, which is the product identified by the FDA and CDC as the likely source of the worst cyclospora outbreak on record. The iceberg lettuce does not carry a Taylor Farms brand label when it is served inside a Taco Bell. Taylor Farms is therefore both preparing a recall and not associated with the outbreak. The lettuce is also from Mexico.)

The statement notes that the FDA traceback investigation identified "a specific independent farm" representing less than 1% of the U.S. iceberg lettuce supply as the potential source. The FDA traceback investigation traced the iceberg lettuce to Taylor Farms, whose facility is in Colorado Springs. These two facts exist simultaneously and are both publicly available.

Taylor Farms has been named in three major federal foodborne illness investigations since 2013. The first was a 2013 cyclospora outbreak. The second was a 2024 E. coli O157:H7 outbreak linked to McDonald's Quarter Pounders. The third is the current cyclospora outbreak, which involves a different fast food restaurant, a different parasite, and is, by all available measures, the worst of the three in terms of scale.

(The company's response to the third investigation is a clarification that their branded salad kits are not the problem. This is accurate. The iceberg lettuce they grew and supplied to a different chain, without a label, is the problem. These are different products. The investigation continues.)

No formal recall has been issued. Taco Bell voluntarily removed the implicated shredded iceberg lettuce from its supply chain before the CDC officially named a source. The CDC has named a source. The FDA traceback work is continuing to determine where else the implicated lettuce was distributed. Taylor Farms is not associated with this outbreak via its branded salad products. The recall is being prepared. The outbreak is ongoing.