Cyclospora outbreak linked to Taco Bell lettuce spreads to 13 states

The outbreak is spreading faster than health officials can count it. As of Friday, the Food and Drug Administration confirmed that cyclospora—a parasitic infection that triggers cramps, gas, and severe diarrhea—has now touched thirteen states, with four new ones added to the list in a single week. Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania joined nine others where patients fell ill after eating at Taco Bell locations. The common thread running through all of them is iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico and supplied by Taylor Farms de Mexico.

The numbers are still climbing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has logged 4,173 laboratory-confirmed cases of cyclospora across 41 states since May 1, with another 7,400 cases still under investigation. But the FDA is tracking a more specific subset: 1,947 people who became sick and reported eating at Taco Bell in the nine originally affected states. Of those, 98 have been hospitalized. The agency expects these figures to keep rising for weeks to come, since the parasite can take up to six weeks to show symptoms and for officials to confirm whether a case belongs to this outbreak.

The investigation moved quickly once it began. Traceback work by the FDA identified a single supplier—Taylor Farms de Mexico—as the source of the contaminated shredded lettuce used in Taco Bell restaurants where sick people had eaten before becoming ill. Last week, a lab sample from the produce company tested positive, which seemed to confirm the connection. But then the FDA reported that the sample was a false positive, creating a moment of confusion. On Friday, the agency clarified that this lab error did not alter the foundation of its investigation. The epidemiological evidence—the pattern of who got sick and where they ate—remained overwhelming. The traceback data still pointed to Taylor Farms' lettuce from growers in central Mexico.

Both companies moved to contain the damage. Taco Bell said it had swiftly removed the affected lettuce from its restaurants nationwide and pulled the ingredient from its supply chain. Taylor Farms issued a sweeping voluntary recall and went further: it suspended all iceberg lettuce sourcing and production from the entire central Mexico region, not just from the specific growers implicated. The company said it had removed all potentially contaminated product from the marketplace and, out of caution, recalled even broader categories of lettuce that might have been affected.

But the outbreak is not uniform across the country. North Carolina is experiencing its own surge of cyclospora cases, and state health officials believe it may be linked to different produce entirely—parsley and cilantro rather than lettuce. Carl Williams, a public health official at the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, said the state's outbreak does not appear connected to the Taco Bell illnesses. Yet when investigators spoke to sick North Carolinians, lettuce kept appearing in their food histories alongside the herbs, complicating the picture. The state is conducting thorough investigations in collaboration with local health departments, but the source remains unclear.

The FDA has urged the public to avoid all products on Taylor Farms' recall list. Officials acknowledge that cases will likely continue to rise despite the recall, simply because of the lag between infection and confirmation. The parasite is still working its way through the food supply and through people's bodies, and the full scope of the outbreak may not be visible for weeks.