Taylor Farms issued a voluntary recall of shredded iceberg lettuce grown in central Mexico amid an ongoing multistate Cyclospora outbreak in the US. The recall covers products distributed to 27 states, including lettuce served at Taco Bell locations in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and West Virginia [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].

Health officials have linked at least 1,645 cases of cyclosporiasis across 34 states to the outbreak as of mid-July 2026, with around 141 hospitalizations reported but no deaths [1, 6, 3, 4]. Symptoms typically include diarrhea and can take days or weeks to appear, complicating efforts to track infections [7, 8, 4].

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced July 18 that a sample of Taylor Farms shredded iceberg lettuce tested positive for Cyclospora but retracted the result the next day, calling it a false positive after further analysis [6, 9, 7, 3, 4, 5]. Despite the false positive test, the FDA continues to link the outbreak to Taylor Farms lettuce based on comprehensive traceback and epidemiological data. FDA acting Deputy Commissioner Donald Prater said, "Test results are difficult to obtain, and most of the time, our traceback and epidemiologic information are what allows us to determine the source of the outbreak" [2, 8, 3, 4, 5].

Taylor Farms has stressed that no product samples have tested positive for Cyclospora. A spokesperson stated, "To be clear, at this moment, FDA has not identified a single positive product test result for cyclospora." The company also said the FDA had apologized for the false positive result [9, 7, 3, 4, 5]. Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb noted, "The test result does not clear Taylor Farms of its link to the outbreak" [8].

Taco Bell and other retailers have stopped serving or selling the shredded iceberg lettuce linked to the recall in affected states [1, 2, 4]. The outbreak investigation is ongoing and may identify other products, brands, or locations connected to Cyclospora contamination [1, 8, 4].

The timeline of events includes the recall period of June 29 to July 16, 2026, for lettuce sourced from central Mexico. Taylor Farms announced the recall publicly on July 17. The FDA’s initial positive Cyclospora test was announced July 18 and reversed July 19. On July 20, the FDA reaffirmed that traceback and epidemiology still implicated the lettuce despite the false positive test [1, 6, 9, 7, 2, 8, 3, 4, 5].