This browser does not support the Video element.
California lettuce supplier linked to past outbreaks
Taylor Farms, based in Salinas, California, is being looked at as possible source of tainted lettuce tied to the cyclospora outbreak, the Washington Post reports. Taylor Farms is also known for supplying lettuce to Taco Bell. The parasite is known to have caused "explosive diarrhea" to some of the patients known to have eaten the tainted lettuce.
A California lettuce supplier is under federal investigation as a possible source of tainted produce tied to a nationwide cyclospora outbreak that has sickened thousands.
Taylor Farms, a major salad producer based in Salinas, is being scrutinized after investigators traced a suspected link to shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants in several Midwestern states. That lettuce is believed to have carried cyclospora, a parasite spread through human waste that can cause weeks of severe diarrhea and cramping once ingested.
Food safety attorney Bill Marler, who represents people sickened in the outbreak and has previously sued Taylor Farms, said the company's size and reach make any breakdown in its operations a national concern.
"I think it has a lot to do with just being incredibly big and lots of moving parts, lots of things to pay attention to," Marler said.
The current investigation comes on the heels of several high-profile outbreaks involving Taylor Farms products over the past decade. In 2013, health officials traced a multistate cyclospora outbreak to salad mix produced at a Taylor Farms plant in Mexico, an incident that sickened more than 600 people in roughly two dozen states. In 2024, slivered onions supplied by Taylor Farms were named the likely source of an E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald's Quarter Pounder hamburgers, in which dozens of people fell ill and one person died.
In the ongoing cyclospora outbreak, more than 100 people have been hospitalized, though no deaths have been reported.
Marler said California, where Taylor Farms is headquartered, has so far avoided the worst of the outbreak.
"California has dodged this bullet. And whatever lettuce was being circulated in the Midwest didn't make it to the West Coast," Marler said.
He argued, however, that warning signs in other parts of the country were muted by recent changes in federal surveillance. In July 2025, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made cyclospora reporting optional under its FoodNet program, a move Marler said has weakened the system designed to quickly spot and track foodborne illness.
"We have really cut the cuts that have come from DOGE to the FDA and the CDC, and we're seeing the results," Marler said. "I mean, there aren't enough boots on the ground to do this kind of work, to figure these outbreaks out fast enough."
Taco Bell said it voluntarily pulled the potentially affected lettuce in select states "out of an abundance of caution" and that the ingredient is being "indefinitely removed" from its supply chain nationwide. Taylor Farms has not publicly responded to the latest investigation.
Marler said outbreaks of this scale are unacceptable in a country with extensive food safety resources.
"This is 2026. This is the kind of thing that should not be happening in a first-world country," Marler said.