State officials say cyclosporiasis case counts are typical. The recall paperwork doesn't show which restaurants, if any, received the lettuce.
For 18 days, from June 29 through July 16, shredded iceberg lettuce grown and packed in central Mexico entered the New Jersey food-service supply chain. Federal regulators initially announced that they had traced a cyclosporiasis outbreak to that supplier, Taylor Farms de Mexico, then reversed the only product test that connected it. The distribution list includes New Jersey. Taylor Farms' paperwork doesn't say which restaurants, if any, received it.
None of the five outbreak states is New Jersey, and recalled retail products never reached the state. But the bulk of the recalled lettuce never went to retail at all. It went to food service: the bags and boxes that supply restaurant kitchens, cafeterias and caterers. That supply-chain channel includes New Jersey.
Voluntary recall still active, despite reversal
Taylor Farms' voluntary recall paperwork does not show which New Jersey restaurants received the lettuce, if any. Despite the reverse-course on the test, the recall remains active.
• Supplier: Taylor Farms de Mexico, Guanajuato, Mexico
• Product: Iceberg lettuce from central Mexico, removed from the U.S. market voluntarily on July 17
• Distribution window: June 29 through July 16
• Food-service channel: 27 states, including New Jersey, under brand codes CV, JB, MARK, PK, SUB, SY, TF
• Retail channel: Marketside Iceberg Salad and Shredded Lettuce, various sizes, best-by July 18 through August 3; sold at Walmart in 15 states, not including New Jersey
Walmart pulled four Marketside products from shelves and is offering refunds, telling customers there were "no confirmed illnesses associated with these products at this time." Restaurant distributor Sysco pulled every Taylor Farms iceberg lettuce product from Mexico and told its clients to throw them out. Sysco did not answer questions about where it sold the lettuce before the recall.
Taco Bell removed the affected lettuce by July 17. The FDA says the chain "is no longer using lettuce from Taylor Farms de Mexico." The agency's advice is direct: do not eat recalled lettuce at any Taco Bell location, and if you do not know where a restaurant's lettuce came from, ask.
One Parasite, Two Outbreaks
The Taylor Farms recall is only part of the story. Federal officials are tracking two overlapping events and the distinction matters.
The first has a named source. On July 17 the CDC announced the source: lettuce served at Taco Bell locations in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia. The FDA’s supply chain analysis pointed to Taylor Farms as the supplier to Taco Bell.
The second is not solved. The CDC lists the broader event under "Outbreak with Unknown Source." The agency counts "1,645 laboratory-confirmed, domestically acquired cases" across 34 states as of July 13. At that point last year, the comparable count was 249. Hospitalizations stand at 141, about 9 percent of cases, with no deaths reported.
Michigan is the epicenter by any measure. State officials counted more than 4,300 cases by July 16 and roughly 5,000 one day later, including probable cases that the federal count excludes. A state that typically identifies about 50 infections a year has now logged roughly 100 times that. "There is clearly a linked outbreak happening right now," Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, Michigan's chief medical executive, said earlier this month.
Then on July 18 came a development that threatened to widen the investigation. On that day the FDA said a sample of Taylor Farms shredded iceberg lettuce had tested positive for Cyclospora during import screening.
A day later the agency reversed itself. After laboratory experts reviewed the sample a second time, the FDA said on July 19 that the finding "does not represent true amplification and should be considered a false positive." As of that date, no product sample had produced a confirmed positive result for Cyclospora, the agency said.
In a statement Sunday night, Taylor Fresh Foods said the FDA had apologized for the error and confirmed the reversal. "To be clear, at this moment, FDA has not identified a single positive product test result for Cyclospora," the company said. "Based on initial information provided by health officials, in an abundance of caution, we completed a voluntary recall of iceberg lettuce from central Mexico."
The company said the FDA traceback points to "a specific independent farm representing less than 1 percent of the U.S. iceberg lettuce supply" as the potential source and that it has removed all iceberg lettuce from the region indefinitely. The outbreak does not involve Taylor Farms branded salads or kits, the company said, adding that none of its branded salad kits contain iceberg lettuce.
New Jersey Health Department says its numbers are typical
On July 16, one day before Taylor Farms initiated its recall, the New Jersey Department of Health issued its only statement on the surge. The department tallied 46 cyclosporiasis infections from May 1 through July 11, each acquired domestically and falling inside the band the state considers normal for the season: 30 to 50. The department said no outbreaks have been identified and no New Jersey-grown produce is linked to illnesses elsewhere.
"At this time, we are not seeing an increase in cyclosporiasis cases here in New Jersey, and our current numbers are in line with what we'd expect for this time of year," Health Commissioner Dr. Raynard Washington said.
State Agriculture Secretary Ed Wengryn said no New Jersey farms are implicated, noting the recall covers Mexican produce, not state agriculture.
In the same release, the department noted cases "are beginning to rise steadily," and Washington offered a caveat that reads differently now than before the recall.
"Produce grown or packed in other states regularly ends up on New Jersey shelves, so contamination elsewhere can still reach us here," he said.
Health officials say an outbreak requires a common source, exposure or location; New Jersey's 46 confirmed cases share no such link, so no outbreak exists on paper. The CDC has confirmed cases in 34 states nationwide, without publishing state-by-state rankings.
As of July 20, the state Department of Health had issued no statement on the outbreak beyond its July 16 advisory.
The recall hides behind letter codes
Food-safety advocates say the recall illustrates how little the public is told when product under recall moves through food service rather than retail. The notice identifies affected products by letter codes, CV, JB, MARK, PK, SUB, SY, TF, with no lot numbers and no customer names attached.
"No lot codes and no names of Taylor Farms customers, only letters — not very helpful to the average consumer," said Bill Marler, a food-safety attorney.
Consumer Reports' director of food policy, Brian Ronholm, called the company's disclosure "vague and inadequate." With no lot codes and no customer names on the recall, the FDA and CDC are left giving the same advice: ask the restaurant, ask the cafeteria, ask where the lettuce came from.
If you eat out, ask where the restaurant's iceberg lettuce comes from. Sysco and other distributors told restaurants that bought through them during the June 29 to July 16 window to destroy Mexican-sourced Taylor Farms product. An establishment that cannot answer the question is telling you something.
"The source of this outbreak is what we eat or drink — not casual contact with someone who's sick," Gwen Biggerstaff, deputy director of the CDC's Division of Foodborne, Waterborne and Environmental Diseases, said at a July 14 briefing. Dr. Linda Yancey, an infectious-disease physician who spoke with WebMD, put it another way. "You might be able to list the meals you had yesterday, but try to think about everything you ate 10 days ago," she said.
That difficulty is the outbreak's best friend. New Jersey's case count is typical for the season, and the state has identified no outbreak. The risk to the public here is low. But cyclosporiasis typically appears about a week after exposure. Anyone who may have eaten contaminated lettuce at a New Jersey restaurant during the June 29 to July 16 window — if the product even reached restaurants in the state in the first place — would be getting sick right about now. The recall paperwork names no restaurant. The lag, and lack of transparency, are the problem.
Consumers should know the symptoms and how to report
Know the symptoms: Cyclosporiasis typically presents about a week after exposure, with a range of two to 14 days or more. The hallmark is watery, sometimes explosive diarrhea, with appetite and weight loss, bloating, cramps, nausea and fatigue. Untreated, it can last days to a month and can relapse just as it seems to be clearing.
Know the treatment: Doctors prescribe trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole for seven to ten days. Patients who cannot tolerate sulfa drugs have other options. Drinking plenty of fluids is essential during recovery. "For the vast majority of people, this is going to be just an annoyance," infectious-disease physician Dr. Linda Yancey told WebMD. "It will make you miserable for a few days, but we haven't had any deaths reported and — knock on wood — hopefully we won't."
Report it: New Jersey requires health-care providers to report cyclosporiasis to local health departments. Residents who suspect illness should see a doctor and mention the outbreak explicitly.
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Sources
• ABC News, "Here's where cyclosporiasis is spreading: Cases are confirmed in 32 states, including California, with symptom of watery diarrhea" (July 12, 2026)
• Anusha Shah, Reuters, "FDA Says Sample of Iceberg Lettuce Supplied by Taylor Farms Tested Positive for US Parasite Outbreak" (July 18, 2026) --- carried by U.S. News & World Report
• CBS News, "Taylor Farms lettuce sample was false positive for cyclospora, FDA says" (July 20, 2026)
• Cleveland Clinic, "Cyclosporiasis: Transmission, Symptoms & Treatment" (2023)
• Consumer Reports, "Cyclospora-Linked Lettuce Was Sent to 27 States, Including to Walmart and Jack in the Box" (July 17, 2026, updated July 18)
• Hadjilouka et al., "Cyclospora cayetanensis outbreaks," PubMed Central (2020)
• Joe Hernandez, Allison Aubrey, and Joseph Kim, NPR, "What to know about the food-borne illness cyclosporiasis" (July 12, 2026, updated July 14)
• Johns Hopkins Medicine, "Cyclosporiasis Outbreak 2026" (July 17, 2026)
• Kenny Cooper, WHYY, "Cyclospora parasite in PA, NJ: Here's what to know" (July 10, 2026)
• Lori Comstock, NorthJersey.com, "NJ has up to 80 Cyclospora cases --- so why no outbreak?" (July 14, 2026)
• New Jersey Department of Health, "NJ Health Officials Report Typical Seasonal Uptick of Cyclosporiasis Cases, No Outbreaks Amid Multistate Cyclosporiasis Activity" (July 16, 2026)
• New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, "Cyclosporiasis - NYC Health" (July 13, 2026)
• North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, "North Carolina Seeing Increase in Cyclosporiasis Cases" (July 14, 2026)
• Stanford Medicine, "Cyclosporiasis: What a Stanford Medicine Expert Says About the Diarrheal Outbreak" (July 18, 2026)
• Taylor Farms, "Taylor Fresh Foods Statement Regarding Cyclospora Outbreak" (July 17, 2026, updated July 20)
• Taylor Fresh Foods, company statement on the reversed test result, the scope of the recall and the FDA's reported apology (July 19, 2026)
• U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Cyclosporiasis Surveillance" (July 15, 2026)
• U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Health Alert Network Advisory: Domestically Acquired Cyclosporiasis Cases in Multiple States" (July 14, 2026)
• U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Investigation Update: Cyclospora Outbreak, July 2026" (July 17, 2026)
• U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Transcript: Update on CDC's Cyclosporiasis Response" (July 14, 2026)
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration, "Investigation of 5-State Outbreak of Cyclospora Illnesses: Iceberg Lettuce (July 2026)" (July 18, 2026, updated July 19)
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration, "Taylor Fresh Foods Recalls Iceberg Lettuce from Central Mexico Because of Possible Health Risk" (July 18, 2026)
• WebMD, "What Is Cyclosporiasis? Causes, Symptoms, Treatment" (July 2026)
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