Savannah Peters reported that Taylor Farms recall expanded on Friday to cover iceberg lettuce products sourced from central Mexico after a potential link to a multistate cyclospora outbreak. The recalled products reached consumers in 27 states, including items shipped as recently as Thursday with best by dates as late as Aug. 3.
Taylor Farms and Sysco
Taylor Farms listed 25 shredded lettuce and salad mix products sold under eight different brand codes. The company said, “We are actively removing the implicated products,” and said it had stopped sourcing lettuce from an implicated lot in central Mexico.
Sysco then halted distribution of all Taylor Farms iceberg lettuce products sourced from Mexico and told customers to destroy the products. That response narrowed the chance that more of the recalled lettuce would stay in circulation, but it did not change the scope of the recall already in homes and food-service channels across 27 states.
CDC and Taco Bell
Earlier this week, The CDC warned consumers to avoid shredded lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants in five Midwestern states: Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia. Taco Bell said it “worked swiftly to voluntarily remove the product from restaurants and the affected ingredient has been removed from our supply chain nationwide.”
Those steps tie the Taylor Farms recall to a wider food-safety response already in motion. The same lettuce problem that prompted the warning at Taco Bell now reaches beyond restaurants and into the broader distribution network.
Consumers and 27 states
Consumers and food buyers in the affected states need to check shredded lettuce and salad mix products against the recall list, especially items with best by dates as late as Aug. 3. The list spans 25 products and eight brand codes, so a package label alone may be the fastest way to sort out whether it came from the recalled batch.
The practical next step is simple: destroy any recalled product and stop using Taylor Farms iceberg lettuce sourced from Mexico. With the recall expanding and removal underway, the unresolved question is which specific brands and retailers sold the 25 recalled products.
