A widespread outbreak of a severe stomach illness in the United States has been linked to shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants, according to a source familiar with the investigation who spoke to ABC News. The finding points investigators toward a specific product served at the fast-food chain as they work to trace how thousands of people fell ill across the country.
According to that source, the lettuce in question was served at Taco Bell locations in five states. Those states are Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia, a cluster in the Midwest and neighboring regions where cases were tied back to the chain. The link was described as part of the wider federal effort to pin down the origin of the illness.
Investigators also narrowed in on where the lettuce came from. The source said the Food and Drug Administration's investigation identified a single supplier of iceberg lettuce, imported from Mexico, that was used by the Taco Bell locations involved. Isolating one common supplier is a key step in outbreak investigations, helping explain how a single contaminated product can sicken people across multiple states.
The investigation has since pointed to a named supplier. Taylor Farms, one of the largest producers of fresh vegetables in the United States, told ABC News it was voluntarily removing all iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico from the U.S. market, adding that no other Taylor fresh foods products were affected. The federal inquiry was said to have traced the lettuce toward an independent farm in Mexico. It is not the first time the company has been linked to a major outbreak; in 2024, slivered onions supplied by Taylor Farms were tied to an E. coli outbreak connected to Quarter Pounder burgers at McDonald's.
Taco Bell responded with a more detailed account of the steps it was taking. In a statement, the chain said that, out of an abundance of caution, it had taken immediate action to voluntarily remove potentially impacted lettuce from a supplier in select states. It added that the affected ingredient from that supplier was being indefinitely removed from its supply chain nationwide and would be replaced within 24 hours in the affected states, going further than the initial removal of some ingredients earlier in the week.
As the week went on, the scope of the recall widened significantly. According to ABC News, Taylor Farms released a full list of the products it was voluntarily recalling because they may potentially be contaminated, and it proved far larger than the company had first indicated. The recall of shredded iceberg lettuce now reaches 27 states, stretching from Connecticut to Texas to Wisconsin, covering products shipped between June 29 and July 16. In all, the full recall spans roughly three dozen items, including bagged iceberg salads, shredded and chopped lettuce and lettuce-romaine blends sold to restaurants and stores, with use-by dates running into early August. The company is urging anyone who still has the affected products to throw them out.
In the most concrete sign of contamination so far, the Food and Drug Administration said a sample of shredded iceberg lettuce supplied by Taylor Farms had tested positive for the cyclosporiasis parasite. The agency noted that this particular sample was not part of the current recall, and said Taylor Farms was working to determine whether any of that implicated lot was still available in commerce or sitting in consumers' homes, raising the prospect that the recall could grow further.
The recall has also been tied to specific retail products. According to the FDA, it now includes the Marketside brand iceberg salad and shredded lettuce sold at Walmart, and the same shredded lettuce was served at some Taco Bell locations. Both Walmart and Taco Bell have said they have since removed the impacted lettuce, echoing the chain's earlier statement that it was stripping the ingredient from its supply chain nationwide.
The illness at the center of the outbreak was identified as cyclosporiasis, a parasitic infection. According to guidance shared around the investigation, it is usually not life-threatening, and most people with a healthy immune system recover on their own. The concern is that symptoms can drag on anywhere from a few days to well over a month, which is why people in the affected states who develop symptoms are urged to see a doctor and get tested, as antibiotics are available that can shorten the length and severity of the illness.
The scale of the outbreak has been considerable and has continued to grow. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported thousands of cases of the intestinal illness across dozens of states, including a growing number of hospitalizations, making it one of the larger foodborne episodes to draw federal attention in recent months. The bulk of the cases, and of the hospitalizations, have been in Michigan, where health officials say thousands of people have been infected, in a state that typically sees fewer than 50 cases a year. ABC News reported that more than 1,600 cases and nearly 100 hospitalizations have been linked specifically to lettuce served at the Taco Bell locations in the five states, within that larger national outbreak, which officials say has still been adding new cases each day.
Foodborne outbreaks of this kind are often traced to fresh produce, which can become contaminated at various points before reaching consumers and is frequently eaten raw. That makes items like leafy greens a recurring focus for investigators, and it can take time to connect scattered illnesses in different states to a common source and supplier.
For now, the investigation remains active, and questions remain about how the lettuce became contaminated and how widely it was distributed. ABC News said it had reached out to Taco Bell again for comment and had not heard back. Officials are expected to keep tracing the product as they work to confirm the source, expand the recall as needed and prevent further illnesses.