If you grabbed a taco from Taco Bell in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, or West Virginia recently and ended up feeling terrible, you are not alone. The culprit was shredded iceberg lettuce. The FDA traced the contaminated lettuce back to a specific independent farm in Mexico that supplies Taylor Farms, a California-based fresh produce company with more than 24,000 employees. That lettuce came from one Mexican farm and was sent only to Taco Bell outlets across those five states.
Once the link was found, Taco Bell acted fast. The chain removed the potentially affected lettuce from its restaurants in those states and said it was pulling Taylor Farms lettuce from its supply chain indefinitely. In a public statement, a Taylor Farms spokesperson said, "We are deeply concerned for those who got sick." Its Mexico division voluntarily stopped shipping any iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico into the United States.
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Taylor Farms, a private firm, has an estimated value of $7 billion. It was founded in 1995 by Bruce Taylor, who still runs it as chairman and CEO. Today the company employs more than 24,000 people across 22 production locations in North America.
Taylor Farms delivers packaged salads, fresh-cut veggies, meal kits, and other ready-to-eat items to grocery chains, eateries, and food-service clients throughout North America. But this is not Taylor Farms' first outbreak. In 2013 its Mexico division was linked to a cyclosporiasis outbreak that sickened 631 people across 25 states. More recently, in 2024, Taylor Farms onions served on McDonald's Quarter Pounders were tied to an E. coli outbreak that hit 104 people across 14 states, sent 34 to the hospital, and resulted in one death.
Federal investigations into the current cyclosporiasis outbreak continue. The FDA is looking into whether tainted lettuce from that supplier is still being sold and if it reached other restaurants, stores, brands, or companies. As the investigation progresses, more states could be included in the federal advisory.
The CDC is probing other outbreak clusters and thousands more Cyclospora cases that could be unrelated to the Taco Bell lettuce. Public health authorities have cautioned that the national rise in cases probably stems from multiple sources.
The repeated food safety incidents involving Taylor Farms highlight persistent vulnerabilities in the fresh produce supply chain, especially for imported items. Cyclospora, a microscopic parasite that causes severe gastrointestinal illness, is notoriously difficult to detect because it does not spoil food or leave obvious signs. The CDC and FDA are now working to identify whether additional distribution points received lettuce from the same Mexican farm, and Taco Bell's decision to sever ties with Taylor Farms may prompt other fast‑food chains to tighten their supplier oversight.
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