The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it linked cases of cyclosporiasis in Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania to Taco Bell last week. Cases in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia were linked to Taco Bell earlier in the month. At least 1,947 consumers in nine states reported exposure to Taco Bell and have fallen ill with the parasitic diarrheal illness
Confirmed cases of Cyclospora infections linked to Taco Bell
The CDC said the outbreak case totals “includes sick people who have traveled to states involved in the outbreak in the two weeks before their illness began and ate at Taco Bell.”
The FDA has issued a recall notice for a range of Taylor Farms products containing iceberg lettuce that were distributed across 27 states between June 29 and July 16. Taylor Farms voluntarily removed all of its Mexico-based iceberg lettuce sourced from U.S. store shelves, even though at least one of its lettuce samples provided to federal regulators resulted in a false positive. This has complicated efforts to trace the source of the outbreak and communicate it to the general public.
The FDA’s investigation converged on iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms de Mexico used by Taco Bell as a possible cause of the outbreak, according to a CDC statement. Still, the FDA said on July 17 that “not all Taco Bell locations in these states received shredded iceberg lettuce from the same supplier.”
Additionally, the CDC is still “investigating other outbreaks and illnesses of cyclosporiasis nationally that are unrelated to this outbreak,” which raised the possibility of further supply chain disruptions and potential brand damage for other restaurants.
The scale of the cluster of cyclosporiasis outbreaks in 2026 is impressive: there have been more than 11,500 confirmed or suspected cases through July 24, according to the CDC. In 2025, the CDC reported only 249 cyclosporiasis cases through mid-July.
It takes considerable time and testing to confirm infection with the Cyclospora parasite, meaning the CDC’s numbers may be a conservative estimate. Michigan, the state worst afflicted by the outbreak, recorded 8,176 cases as of July 24 on its state health department site, while the CDC estimate for cases topped out at 2,100 in the state as of July 24. Federal confirmation numbers are lower in other jurisdictions, as well. The CDC estimate for cases in New York, for instance, is capped at 300 cases; the New York City health department, however, reported 447 cases diagnosed between May 1 and July 20.
While Taylor Farms and Taco Bell have both removed lettuce suspected of contamination, the two companies are already facing several lawsuits from consumers sickened in the epidemic.
Cyclosporiasis symptoms typically appear between two days and two weeks after consuming contaminated food or water, but the CDC said symptoms may appear more than two weeks after infection.
Some Michigan Taco Bell restaurants confirmed to Restaurant Dive on July 10 that they had stopped serving lettuce, but the chain said its voluntary removal of the potentially impacted lettuce was completed on July 17, meaning cases may continue to manifest into early August.
