Confusion swirls on source of diarrhea outbreak, but it’s still Taylor Farms

Taylor Farms stirred confusion on FDA test and provided a vague recall list.

Federal officials on Monday reaffirmed that iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms still appears to be the source of Cyclospora, the microscopic parasite behind a multi-state surge in explosive diarrhea cases.

The assertion was intended to clear up confusion that began swirling over the weekend around a false positive test from the Food and Drug Administration—which Taylor Farms celebrated, sparking confusion. Still, many details of the outbreak remain murky, largely due to the vague recall information Taylor Farms has publicly provided.

On Friday, the FDA, along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, announced that the FDA’s traceback investigations for the outbreak converged on Taylor Farms. Traceback investigations work by tracking backward from sick people and the foods they ate to where those foods came from through the supply chain, down to individual farms or production facilities. When the FDA said their investigation converged on Taylor Farms, the agency means that, over and over again, tracebacks led them to shredded iceberg lettuce grown in Central Mexico and supplied by Taylor Farms—which also goes by Taylor Fresh Foods.

The convergence of tracebacks was the basis for the FDA and CDC publicly identifying Taylor Farms on Friday. It was also the basis for Taylor Farms issuing a sweeping recall the same day for all its iceberg lettuce sourced from Central Mexico between June 29 and July 16.

At the time, the FDA’s traceback investigation specifically focused on tracing back shredded iceberg lettuce that people had eaten from Taco Bell locations. Thus, the messaging at the time suggested that the contaminated lettuce may be limited to Taco Bell. A CDC press release Friday warned consumers not to eat lettuce at Taco Bell locations in five states (Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and West Virginia). It noted that “Shredded iceberg lettuce sold in grocery stores or served in other restaurants is not affected.”

Mixed messages

Then things changed over the weekend. First, on Saturday, the FDA announced that a sample of Taylor Farms lettuce tested positive for Cyclospora. The result confirmed the traceback investigation findings—and also potentially extended the list of contaminated products. But, then on Sunday, the FDA deleted the information from its website, explaining that on further review, the result was a false positive.

In a press briefing Monday, FDA officials explained that the test result was from lettuce sampled at the border that was not included in Taylor Farms’ recall. Given that new illnesses are still being reported and the tested lettuce was not part of the outbreak recall, the FDA rushed to publicly disclose the information in hopes of preventing more illnesses, the officials said. But, upon further testing, it became clear that the genetic test for the parasite had returned a false result. Officials would not go into detail on what caused the faulty result, but contamination is a common source of false positives.

Meanwhile Taylor Farms seemed to celebrate the rescinded test result over the weekend, sparking confusion.

“Today, FDA apologized to us,” Taylor Farms wrote at the start of a statement Sunday.

“Today, we were informed that FDA made a mistake, and this was a false positive. To be clear, at this moment, FDA has not identified a single positive product test result for Cyclospora,” the statement read (emphasis theirs).

This response was followed by headlines that suggested the FDA may have blamed Taylor Farms in error. The Wall Street Journal, for instance, reported the FDA “walked back” an earlier detection, to which the FDA directly responded.

“To clarify, this false-positive lab sample DOES NOT change the basis for FDA’s ongoing outbreak investigation or the overwhelming epidemiological data supporting the current voluntary recall by Taylor Farms,” the agency said on social media.

In the press briefing Monday, FDA officials also flatly denied issuing an apology to Taylor Farms. They further explained that the false result didn’t change anything about the situation, and outbreaks involving short-lived produce often lack confirmatory positive tests.

“I also want to be clear that our weekend communications around a false positive test result do not change the basis for FDA’s ongoing outbreak investigation or the epidemiological data supporting the current voluntary recall by Taylor Farms,” Acting FDA Commissioner Kyle Diamantas emphasized at the outset of the briefing.

Vague recall

Although the testing turned out to be false, additional information over the weekend did seem to expand the scope of the outbreak—at least the publicly visible part of it. The New York Times reported that restaurants and retailers other than Taco Bell were removing iceberg lettuce they received from Taylor Farms. In many cases, the lettuce was sold in large bags for restaurants or service operations, and sometimes blended with romaine.

Walmart removed lettuces sold under its Marketside brand—which were included in the FDA’s notices but not in Taylor Farms’ recall list. Sysco, the nation’s largest food distributor, told the Times that it was removing lettuce products it had from Taylor Farms. So did US Foods, another large food distributor. Jack in the Box restaurants also said they were affected by the recall.

The Times noted that Taylor Farms’ recall notice is vague—it doesn’t list these distributors or retailers affected, only product codes and dates. The FDA said on its website Saturday morning that Taylor Farms “has not publicly provided distribution information or a list of customers who received the product that was voluntarily removed from the market.” The FDA later removed that statement, but the recall list remains vague.

Overall, Taylor Farms said it distributed the potentially contaminated lettuce to 27 states. But it’s unclear if food distributors delivered the food to additional states. For instance, New York and California have reported cyclosporiasis cases, but are not included in the recall list.

According to the CDC data, at least 34 states have reported cases. The true number of cases is in the thousands, clearly exceeding the country’s standard range of between 2,000 and 5,000 in recent years. In Michigan alone, health officials are reporting 6,571 cases and 102 hospitalizations as of July 21.

Traceability

Frustrating the situation is that the FDA does not currently require food producers to provide information on all its customers. A new FDA rule, the Food Traceability Rule, was lined up to bolster traceability record requirements for producers of various foods, including leafy greens. The rule would “allow for faster identification and rapid removal of potentially contaminated food from the market, resulting in fewer foodborne illnesses and/or deaths.”

It was set to take effect January 20, 2026, but last year the Trump administration pushed back the compliance deadline by 30 months, to July 20, 2028.

With Taylor Farms now in the spotlight, online scrutiny had raised speculation the company may have played a role in the delay. The Trump administration’s decision to delay the rule was announced on March 20, 2025. Matthew Cortland, a lawyer focusing on health and disability policy at the think tank Data for Progress, noticed that on March 26, 2025—just five days after the decision—Taylor Fresh Foods (aka Taylor Farms) donated $1 million to the Trump-backing super PAC MAGA, Inc (PDF, page 42).

Taylor Farms did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a response posted on social media, an account for the Department of Health and Human Services called the speculation “FAKE NEWS,” and claimed nothing influences decisions of the administration “except science and the safety of the American people.”