An outbreak of cyclosporiasis linked to shredded iceberg lettuce has sickened over 11,000 people across 20 states, leading to two deaths and lawsuits against produce supplier Taylor Farms and the restaurant chain Taco Bell. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) linked the parasitic illness to lettuce from Taylor Farms' Mexico operations on July 16, 2026. The company issued a recall the following day, and Taco Bell reported it had voluntarily removed the product from its restaurants.
Public health officials in Michigan reported alerting federal agencies to an unusual number of cases in late June, several weeks before the national announcement. While the FDA defended its timeline, stating it could not determine the specific vehicle for the infection until receiving supplier information on July 13, local health departments reported they were forced to reassign staff to manage the caseload.
In Michigan’s Washtenaw County, daily case counts rose from a handful in June to 80 per day by mid-July. To manage the volume, nurse coordinators, restaurant inspectors, and clinic staff paused vaccinations and standard health inspections to conduct patient interviews and trace food histories. In Ingham County, which recorded 915 cases by late August, officials reported that laboratory backlogs for cyclosporiasis tests persisted through the end of the month.
Patients diagnosed with the parasitic infection reported impacts including explosive diarrhea, abdominal pain, and fatigue lasting more than a month. One patient reported being hospitalized for six days. The scale of the outbreak strained diagnostic laboratories, some of which ran out of tests during the peak of the surge in July and August.
Michigan's chief medical executive, Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, stated that the state undertook work typically handled by the federal government but that this level of state-led intervention is not sustainable due to limited staffing and bandwidth. While health officials indicate that iceberg lettuce is currently safe to eat, litigation involving hundreds of patients against Taylor Farms and Taco Bell continues. No specific court dates for these lawsuits were reported.