Produce supplier Taylor Farms is recalling iceberg lettuce shipped to 27 US states because of potential contamination with cyclospora, the parasite causing thousands of cases of diarrhea across the country.
The company said it’s “actively removing” the products, has suspended distribution of iceberg lettuce from Central Mexico to the United States and is no longer receiving products from the implicated lot.
“Consumers who have purchased the recalled iceberg lettuce should discard it immediately and not consume it,” the company said.
Taylor Farms said the shredded iceberg lettuce product was distributed June 29 through July 16 in Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.
The recall notice includes brand abbreviations and some product descriptions, including use-by dates, but does not mention specific retailers, restaurants or product names. Sysco and Walmart have both said they removed some products because of notice from the supplier.
“At this time, Taylor Fresh Foods has not publicly provided distribution information or a list of customers who received the product that was voluntarily removed from the market,” the US Food and Drug Administration said in an update Friday.
Federal health officials have linked a large cyclospora outbreak in the Midwest to shredded iceberg lettuce supplied by Taylor Farms and served at some Taco Bell restaurants in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia and Kentucky. Taco Bell said Friday that it has removed the lettuce from its restaurants and its nationwide supply chain.
The FDA said more states may be added to the list as more information comes available.
Restaurant food distributor Sysco said it had already taken action on Taylor Farms iceberg lettuce from Mexico.
“Sysco proactively removed all Taylor Farms processed iceberg lettuce products from Mexico from distribution and instructed customers to destroy them after learning regulators indicated a suspected link between Taylor Farms’ lettuce and a five-state Cyclospora outbreak,” a spokesperson said in a statement Saturday.
Walmart said in a statement to CNN that there’s no indication that its products were affected by the cyclospora outbreak, but it removed four Marketside-branded bagged iceberg lettuce salad products from select locations as a precaution.
People with cyclosporiasis may have symptoms that include watery diarrhea, cramping and bloating for weeks, which can lead to dehydration. Cases of the intestinal illness caused by a microscopic parasite are surging across the US, with nearly 7,000 confirmed or under investigation in 34 states since May 1, according to data published this week by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Federal health officials said there are multiple investigations underway — some tied to the large outbreak in the Midwest, some involving single states and some involving cases not yet tied to any cluster.
So far, the outbreak linked to the lettuce is considered to be a regional one, centered in the Midwest. The Michigan state health department has reported more than 5,000 cases of cyclosporiasis during the outbreak investigation. The state health department said that it “cannot say with certainty that every illness is linked to the same source of exposure” but that the concentrated, sharp increase in cases “strongly suggests that the vast majority of these illnesses are associated with the same outbreak.” This would make it the largest cyclospora outbreak on record in the US.
Taylor Farms produce has also been linked with previous illness outbreaks, including E. coli cases tied to slivered onions in 2024 and cyclospora cases linked with lettuce in 2013.
CNN’s Deidre McPhillips contributed to this report.
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