U.S. health authorities on Friday, 11 September, declared the nation’s largest recorded multistate cyclosporiasis outbreak over after contaminated iceberg lettuce sickened thousands, although the Food and Drug Administration said it was still investigating how the parasite entered the food supply.
The outbreak, which federal investigators linked to lettuce from central Mexico sourced by Taylor Farms, prompted one of the largest food recalls in recent years and renewed scrutiny of food safety controls for imported produce.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 12,883 people across 21 states fell ill after consuming contaminated lettuce.
The outbreak resulted in 570 hospitalisations and two deaths, accounting for more than half of the 19,595 laboratory-confirmed U.S. cyclosporiasis cases reported since 1 May.
At the peak of the outbreak, more than 1,000 infections were reported in a single day before the recall. In August, the CDC said infections had fallen to fewer than two per day on average.
The outbreak also rattled consumer confidence, with some shoppers avoiding raw fruits and vegetables and dining out, hurting foot traffic at restaurants including Taco Bell, Sweetgreen and Chipotle.
“I don’t think that we have the necessary tools and technologies to stop outbreaks like this in the future,” said Donald Schaffner, professor and extension specialist in food science at Rutgers University.
Schaffner called for better strain-tracking tools and sustained funding for parasite research to help prevent similar outbreaks.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Friday it was confident that all recalled iceberg lettuce linked to the outbreak had been removed from the market.
The CDC said best-by dates for all products linked to the outbreak had passed and the lettuce would no longer be available in stores or restaurants.
Taylor Farms recalled all iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico on 17 July.
The FDA said it had completed on-site inspections and collected samples from lettuce farms and the processing facility in Mexico. Analysis of the samples was still pending, and the agency said it would continue working with U.S., Mexican and state partners.
“Our facility in central Mexico remains closed while the investigations by the FDA, our team, and independent experts are being completed,” a Taylor Farms spokesperson told Reuters.
Retailers Walmart and Whole Foods, as well as restaurant chains Taco Bell, Chipotle Mexican Grill and Sweetgreen, did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. Target declined to comment.
Michigan, the state hardest hit by the outbreak, reported more than 14,000 cases and two deaths linked to the parasite, according to federal and state health officials.
Ohio and Missouri also recorded thousands of infections linked to contaminated lettuce from Taylor Farms.
The unusually high case totals in Michigan were attributed to a large backlog of reports processed in August, highlighting pressure on a system weakened by federal funding cuts under the Trump administration.
Before 2026, the largest U.S. cyclosporiasis season on record was in 2019, when roughly 4,700 illnesses were documented nationwide.
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