Taylor Farms pulls all iceberg lettuce sourced in central Mexico from U.S. market

Taylor Farms announced Friday that it is “voluntarily removing all iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico from the U.S. market,” after federal investigators identified some of the lettuce it provided to Taco Bell restaurants as linked to one of the largest U.S. outbreaks of cyclosporiasis this summer.

The company said in a statement that it made the decision based on information provided by the Food and Drug Administration, whose investigators had traced the outbreak to “a specific independent farm” representing less than 1% of the U.S. iceberg lettuce supply. The company added that it would remove all iceberg lettuce from the region indefinitely “out of an abundance of caution.”

The company said no other Taylor Fresh Foods products across the country are impacted. It said no Taylor Farms branded salad kits contain iceberg lettuce.

The announcement came a day after The Washington Post reported that federal investigators had identified Taylor Farms as the supplier of shredded iceberg lettuce linked to the outbreak, citing two people familiar with the investigation.

Other companies have begun to respond to a parasite-borne illness that has sickened thousands, and the federal health investigation has widened beyond Taco Bell restaurants. Sysco, one of the world’s largest food suppliers, on Thursday stopped distributing all Taylor Farms processed iceberg lettuce products from Mexico at the request of the supplier after the agency said it was tracing where the contaminated lettuce may have been distributed throughout the food supply.

After tracing the outbreak to a single supplier of shredded iceberg lettuce used at Taco Bell locations in five states, the FDA investigation could lead to additional product holds or recalls involving other restaurants, grocery chains and prepared foods.

Sysco’s products reach restaurants, hospitals, schools and other food-service providers across the country. The company’s spokesperson said it had placed a hold on certain iceberg lettuce products from Mexico “out of an abundance of caution.”

“This means we will not sell or distribute these products until further notice and will offer customers alternatives to minimize disruption to their business,” the official said.

Sysco’s reach into the American diet is enormous, from hospitals to restaurants. In the third quarter of 2026, its U.S. arm did $14.2 billion in sales. FreshPoint, Sysco’s premium produce distributor, claims several major restaurant chains and hotels as customers, along with providers to convention centers, retirement homes and colleges.

“We will continue to actively monitor the situation and work with regulators as needed,” Sysco’s spokesperson said. “Food safety is a critical priority for Sysco, and we have robust food safety and quality assurance processes to help ensure the safety and quality of all the products we sell.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FDA said investigators have identified a single supplier of iceberg lettuce from Mexico used at Taco Bell restaurants in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia.

On Friday, Taco Bell Corp. said in a statement that it has completed removal of “affected Taylor Farms lettuce” from its restaurants. Based on ongoing conversations with public health officials, and out of an abundance of caution, Taco Bell said the affected ingredient has been removed from its supply chain nationwide.

Cyclospora contamination comes from human feces that have had time to incubate the parasite in a warm environment, said Matthew Moore, a food scientist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. One possible way outbreaks spread is through tainted irrigation water that is used on crops.

“The fact that human fecal material is finding its way into the food is definitely striking,” he said.

“There’s so much lettuce in this country,” said Moore.

Susan Mayne, who until 2023 headed the FDA center that oversees outbreak investigations, said investigators are shifting from identifying the likely source in the multistate outbreak, or traceback, to primarily determining everywhere the product may have been shipped, a process known as trace-forward.

Federal officials not named the supplier because naming suppliers for a particular company is considered proprietary information.

Taylor Farms is one of the leading global producers of salads and healthy fresh foods, with production facilities across the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Western Europe.

Lettuce, in particular, is a difficult product to trace because it is incorporated into so many food items, Mayne said. Figuring out where else that ingredient may have gone will take time, she said.

Mexico supplies about 60% of the fresh fruits and vegetables imported into the United States. Long-standing collaborations between U.S. and Mexican regulators in the past have allowed U.S. authorities to prevent contaminated products from causing recurring outbreaks, Mayne said.

“They can’t just storm a farm in Mexico without engaging the regulatory authorities,” she said.

The five-state outbreak has become the highest priority because most of the illnesses are occurring there, posing the greatest public health risk. Michigan reported over 5,000 cases as of Thursday.

But officials are trying to determine whether illnesses in other states are connected to the multistate outbreak or reflect separate outbreaks caused by different foods.

Taylor Farms also supplied the slivered onions that federal investigators identified as the likely source of the 2024 E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounder burgers, prompting the company to voluntarily recall the onions supplied to McDonald’s and other food-service customers.

Taylor Farms de Mexico in Guanajuato, Mexico, was also linked to part of a 2013 multistate cyclosporiasis outbreak. Federal investigators traced illnesses in Iowa and Nebraska to salad mix supplied by the company and served at Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants, although CDC later concluded the broader multistate outbreak involved more than one source.

The current cyclosporiasis outbreak is taking place months after the Trump administration postponed implementation of a federal food traceability rule designed to help investigators follow high-risk foods through the supply chain during outbreaks.

The rule would require growers, processors, distributors and retailers to maintain standardized records documenting where products came from and where they were shipped. The compliance deadline, originally set for January 2026, was extended by 30 months to July 2028 after some food industry groups said they needed more time to prepare.

“Had this been in place, when FDA identified Taco Bell and potentially lettuce, getting that traced back to the farm would be a relatively quicker exercise, which means you get back to the source more quickly. You can prevent consumers from getting sick,” Mayne said.