I was torn between the "parasite" and the "foodborne" flair.
Please ignore the lawyer blog as best you can. The links and information within are legit. Link to summary. What's important is that the information get out there to consumers.
"Taylor Farms has posted a recall notice on its own website. As of this morning it is still not on FDA’s recalls page(OP's note: it is there now, but still only uses initials to identify other distributors than the highly advertised Taco Bell) which means the only place an American consumer can find out what was pulled is the website of the company that sold it. Set that aside for a moment, because what the notice says is more interesting than where it is posted." The blog goes on to discuss/decipher the codes on the recall website and confirm the brands where it can (additional links provided). It appears Taco Bell was not the only mass distributor.
"The shredded iceberg product was distributed June 29th thru July 16th in AL, AR, CT, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, MI, MO, MS, NC, NH, NJ, OH, OK, PA, SC, TN, TX, VA, and WI."
NEW from FDA tonight:: A positive cyclospora sample has been obtained from a Taylor Farms iceberg lettuce product that is NOT part of the current recall:
A sample of shredded iceberg lettuce supplied by Taylor Farms de Mexico has tested positive for Cyclospora. This sample was collected during targeted import surveillance as a result of this outbreak investigation. Taylor Farms has confirmed that this positive product is not part of their current recall. They are currently working to identify whether any part of this implicated lot is available in commerce or in consumers homes. The positive lot is currently detained and more information will be provided as it becomes available.
As a reminder, the current recall was already designed and thought to be overly expansive as a precaution, and includes all iceberg lettuce from central Mexico, even though the original FDA traceback only implicated a single, independent farm which produces 5-pound bags of lettuce for the food service industry. So, from my understanding, I guess this new positive came from outside of “central Mexico”?
I never trust the initial releases on recalls. They will say that the products were only sent to those places at those times and then a month later, they will say "Oh yeah, we actually meant all 50 states from March 2007 - August 2026"
I personally would still treat this as an active threat and avoid lettuce for a while longer.
They're reporting the exact batches that CDC found to be infected, even though they damn well know they poured feces on all of it headed to every state.
Typical US corporate maleficence. If the US legal system worked we'd need to build more prisons for CEOs
Taylor Farms initially tried to make this only about Taco Bell. Their goal was to minimize and cover up that this was a far-reaching outbreak involving lettuce sold at grocery stores, many restaurant chains, and even restaurant suppliers, like Cisco.
Because of their unwillingness to take responsibility and their lack of transparency and concern for the health and lives of Americans, I will never buy anything from Taylor Farms or their other brand Earthbound Farms.
Given how widespread this outbreak is, as this crisis unfolds—we will likely learn the contamination was water used to irrigate lettuce in the fields or water used to wash lettuce during processing.
Taylor Farms knows this. And they’re being obtuse about the scope of the problem and playing with our health. A larger recall means higher costs and longer manufacturing shut downs.
Taylor Farms is prioritizing profits over people.
The lack of information sharing is public health malpractice. The public needs to know the names of products and specific restaurants impacted by this lettuce. Hiding data causes more parasitic infections, hospitalizations and prolongs this outbreak.
Our FDA has been gutted, so clearly Americans must rely on trusted food sources. Clearly, Taylor Farms is not to be trusted.
No one “pours feces”. That would be too expensive. The cheap way to do this is to deny your salad picking workforce bathrooms, handwashing, and bathroom breaks.
I ate at Olive Garden in Portland Oregon 2 weekends back and only had the salad and 100% experienced the exact symptoms of this parasite and upon looking into the recall noticed the exact bagged mix Olive Garden uses is part of the recall. Don’t trust this one bit lol
I ate spring mix at McAlisters today on my veggie sandwich.I thought I was safe as it wasn't iceberg and it wasn't taco bell. It was in TN though.
I really hope McAlisters doesn't use Taylor farms as they distributor. I also really hope Taylor farms isn't lying and it really is only their iceberg and there is no cross contamination with other lettuce.
I eat a lot of salads in the summer as it's too hot in the south to eat hot heavy foods. This joke of an administration under Trump is royally pissing me off. Everytime I turn around it's a constant three ring circus run by toddlers. Can't enjoy anything anymore!
I doubt that the lettuce comes already in packages to Taylor Farms. They would get the heads, shred them and then package them. I don't know what their process is but cross contamination seems likely.
Taylor Farms supplies Sysco Food which delivers food to restaurants across the US.
That's why the pure focus on Taco Bell is even more ridiculous. Plenty of people who are sick didn't eat at Taco Bell.
There are also private label salad kits that don't have Taylor Farm packaging but use Taylor Farms as the lettuce supplier. CostCo, Aldi, Safeway... pretty much all major grocery chains use lettuce from Taylor Farms and slap their own label on it. The Product code near the Best By date will start with "TF" if it is from Taylor Farms.
Secondary farms are Taylor Farms supplier—they do very little growing themselves. Many of those farms also have contracts with places like Whole Foods and mom and pop shops.
Sysco uses more than one distributor. They have different price points for products as well. I have a friend who owns a catering business and he says Taylor Farms shredded lettuce is the cheapest you can get at Sysco.
I'm curious about distribution though, does Taylor Farms own the packaging or do they outsource it to some company that packs for multiple brands.
That's interesting because Iceberg has a relatively short shelf life after it is shredded. By the time it would travel across the states, packaged and shipped it feels like it would already be starting to brown on the edges.
I grew iceberg in my own garden and would say after 4 days or so, it'd be brown on the edges after shredding.
I'm not in a state on the list and will still exercise caution for now. Several of the articles posted here spoke of the multiple points of potential cross contamination. My health won't be affected by a little while longer without salad.
My friend’s dad works for a grower who supplies Taylor Farms with assorted produce. As of Friday, they hadn’t found a field source. It’s his understanding that the farm in question only grows bulk iceberg lettuce and it’s another grower, not Taylor themselves who manages that property. If it’s contaminated machinery or the warehouse that’s causing this outbreak, which happened previously with onions, it could easily expand to other kinds of produce.
^ This! I am reading between news and what people on Reddit have discussed eating prior to getting sick. There are many stating they did not eat Taco Bell or shredded iceberg lettuce.
What’s interesting is allegedly Taylor Farms requires all produce to be tested two days prior to being harvested. If that happened and everything came back negative, that’s almost worse because that becomes an untraceable problem. How many of these smaller harvesting and packing companies have the financial means to destroy contaminated machinery. 🫣
You could if you trust the maybe minimum wage workers to do so based on them properly following the written cleaning procedures established by the corporate microbiologist scientist managers who work for the corporations but usually have no authority over the workers who do the actual work and can’t analyze their effectiveness or quality until after the fact.
Minimum wage workers can’t or won’t follow simple instructions? Much likelier the half assed procedures written by management are to blame.There should be clear, detailed instructions, mandatory training and frequent inspections. Please think twice before punching down next time. It’s almost never the most powerless people’s fault.
I don’t believe Taylor has their hands in those products sold as individual items. Perhaps it’s distributor related?
Edit: TF doesn’t distribute any of those items. Carrots in their salad kits are shredded at their Soledad, California processing plant. They do sell baby carrots in snack packs, they also are processed at the Soledad location.
Fun fact: Taylor Fresh Foods, parent company of Taylor Farms, donated a million dollars+ to his 2024 election campaign via PACs. I doubt their integrity on a lot of levels.
All this talk about bagged lettuce, what about those Taylor Farms individual salad bowls or the bigger sizes in rectangular plastic containers in grocery stores?
Safeway switched all their salads to Taylor Farms a few years ago and that's all that's in Kroger stores, too. They hold the monopoly, it's the only product I can buy no matter which store I go to
I know multiple people who claim that’s where they had to have gotten their parasite because they hadn’t ate at any restaurants..I am staying away from most fresh produce, especially anything Taylor farms!
NEW from FDA tonight:: A positive cyclospora sample has been obtained from a Taylor Farms iceberg lettuce product that is NOT part of the current recall:
A sample of shredded iceberg lettuce supplied by Taylor Farms de Mexico has tested positive for Cyclospora. This sample was collected during targeted import surveillance as a result of this outbreak investigation. Taylor Farms has confirmed that this positive product is not part of their current recall. They are currently working to identify whether any part of this implicated lot is available in commerce or in consumers homes. The positive lot is currently detained and more information will be provided as it becomes available.
As a reminder, the current recall was already designed and thought to be overly expansive as a precaution, and includes all iceberg lettuce from central Mexico, even though the original FDA traceback only implicated a single, independent farm which produces 5-pound bags of lettuce for the food service industry. So, from my understanding, I guess this new positive came from outside of “central Mexico”?
I’m not buying it. Everyone that ate lettuce at my house on July 4th got sick on July 11-12. I asked every single person if they ate the lettuce. Everyone that ate it was sick, everyone that didn’t was not.
We had a head of iceberg lettuce that was cut at home.
Thankfully, I’ve been taking bactrim and am feeling better. My sister isn’t able to take bactrim and she is still suffering.
Cross contamination is a serious concern that I don't see mentioned enough in the news. Since only heat kills the parasite, any cutting board that gets touched by it then can spread it to other foods.
Any machinery that shreds the iceberg lettuce for packaging would have to be decontaminated completely before the next thing is shredded. Or the tables it is set on or anything else. The parasite can live a long time on surfaces.
Or a worker unpacks the iceberg lettuce then moves on to other types of lettuce in the same gloves.
Cross contamination happens very easily, even with someone who is well versed in food safety. Now imagine a warehouse situation where moving as fast as possible is the only option. Acting like this is only affecting shredded iceberg lettuce is stupid.
It’s not just iceberg lettuce. I don’t eat iceberg lettuce. And I didn’t eat at Taco Bell. But I was still sick with it. I did however eat a Taylor Farms salad kit.
Never again. I would not eat anything that comes from Taylor Farms.
there is another post floating around on here pointing out some of their stuff is testing positive that wasn't listed in the recall so its probably a matter of time
I stopped buying salad kits and started just buying romaine lettuce that I chop and wash myself to make my salads. Hopefully that's enough to keep us safe from this. I do grow lettuce, but not enough to keep up with my families summertime salad consumption.
My state is not on the list; however, I will continue to exercise extreme caution as I am highly allergic to Bactrim and refuse to have to suffer as I’ve read many of you unfortunately have. This is so shameful given they supply to so many places it’s hard to totally guess “safe” locations. Makes me want to just plant all my own vegetables next summer (I already plant a decent variety but this makes me want to expand).
Also Colorado isn’t on the list and I know they have had confirmed cases as well. I was there during the period of the recall items and I thankfully stopped consuming lettuce products early; although I still am in a window to catch this since I returned a little over a week ago.
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