It's not just Taco Bell. Taylor Farms supplies lettuce to many US brands

Taylor Farms produces much of the lettuce sold in America’s supermarkets and fast food restaurants. 

Right now, many consumers would like to know which ones. 

Taylor Farms is in the news because of a historic outbreak of cyclosporiasis, the “explosive diarrhea” disease, with cases surging across more than 30 states in recent weeks.  

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said that, as of July 19, there are no confirmed positive results for samples of Taylor Farms lettuce tested for Cyclospora. On July 18, the FDA had said a lettuce sample from Taylor Farms tested positive for Cyclospora. The agency later said that test was a false positive.

The agency said it is still working with Taylor Farms as it continues to trace the source of the outbreak.

Taylor Farms on July 17 issued a voluntary recall of iceberg lettuce products as a result of the outbreak and investigation, which initially connected the illnesses to lettuce from Taylor Farms de Mexico sold, in part, through Taco Bell locations in five states.

The FDA has instructed Americans not to eat some of the iceberg lettuce produced by Taylor Farms. 

Consumers might have a hard time following that directive: It’s hard to tell the exact provenance of the lettuce in a restaurant taco, burger or sub. 

Here, then, is a primer on Taylor Farms and its global reach. 

How big is Taylor Farms? 

Taylor Farms is the “leading global producer of salads and healthy fresh foods,” according to its website, with facilities in the United States, Mexico, Canada and Europe.  

Taylor Farms has $7 billion in revenues and more than 25,000 employees and 30 processing facilities, according to a spring 2026 profile in UC Berkeley Haas Magazine.  

“Operating across retail, foodservice, and prepared foods, Taylor Farms partners with every major retail group, club store, and quick-service restaurant chain in the country,” the profile says. 

Which supermarket chains sell Taylor Farms lettuce? 

Many.  

Visit the company’s Find-a-Product page and type in your location, and you’ll see a Who’s Who of American supermarkets and big-box retailers that carry Taylor Farms salad kits and other products. 

The list includes Walmart, Target, Safeway, Whole Foods, Meijer, Vons, Food4Less, H-E-B, Sprouts, Fry’s, Albertsons and Kroger.  

Which restaurant chains serve Taylor Farms lettuce? 

That question is trickier to answer.  

We know that Taco Bell served Taylor Farms lettuce, because of the much-discussed recall. 

Chipotle also serves Taylor Farms produce, a company official confirmed on July 20.

"We are continuing to follow the Cyclospora investigation very closely, and at this time, we don’t believe the ingredients we source are associated," said Laurie Schalow, chief corporate affairs and food safety officer at Chipotle.

The Taylor Farms website doesn’t offer a full list of the big-name chain restaurants that serve its lettuce in 2026. That makes it hard for consumers to guess which brands they might want to avoid. 

We do know which chains have served Taylor Farms lettuce and other produce in the past, thanks to a 2014 report from Capital & Main and The Huffington Post. 

That list includes McDonald’s, Subway, KFC, Long John Silver’s and Pizza Hut, as well as Darden Restaurants, whose brands include Olive Garden.  

Has Taylor Farms had previous recalls? 

Yes, although some past recalls have involved mislabeled products rather than potential pathogens.  

A few examples: 

• In 2025, Taylor Farms voluntarily recalled salad kits sold in 25 states over the presence of “undeclared ingredients.” 
• In 2024, Taylor Farms was involved in the removal of Quarter Pounders from McDonald’s menus in many restaurants over potential E. coli contamination in raw onions. 
• In 2019, Taylor Farms recalled roughly 2,100 pounds of mislabeled products that contained “a known allergen.”  
• In 2017, Taylor Farms recalled about 6,630 pounds of chicken and pork salad products possibly tainted with listeria monocytogenes.  
• In 2013, The New York Times reported that Taylor Farms had “an unusual number of voluntary recalls” involving potentially tainted products.  

Company officials ascribed the volume of recalls to the company’s scale. 

“Just if you do the sheer math, our recalls relative to our size are fewer than anybody else,” said Bruce Taylor, chief executive of Taylor Farms, speaking to the Times. 

What is the Taylor Farms story? 

Taylor Farms was founded in 1995 by Taylor, a third-generation lettuce grower in California’s Salinas Valley, and some partners. The company’s goal was to be “North America’s favorite producer of salads and healthy fresh foods,” according to its website.  

Taylor Farms has grown into the leading producer of salads and other healthy fare, according to the Berkeley business-school profile. 

Taylor Farms has also taken a prominent role in promoting food safety. 

Around 2007, Taylor partnered with the Produce Marketing Association to create a Center for Produce Safety. Taylor Farms worked with other growers to standardize food-safety practices in the industry.  

In 2009, Taylor Farms introduced “SmartWash Solutions,” which the Berkeley profile termed “a revolutionary wash-water monitoring system to sanitize and prevent microbial cross contamination.” 

In 2012, Taylor Farms entered the supermarket industry with “with the first-ever branded prepackaged chopped salads with dressings and condiments,” according to the profile. 

According to a 2026 report in the trade publication Western Farm Press, Taylor Farms also revolutionized its industry “by turning it into a fixed-price business that offered growers a guaranteed profit while providing customers a consistent supply.” 

In years past, restaurateurs and supermarkets had struggled with unpredictable prices for produce. Taylor Farms changed that. 

“McDonald’s wanted shredded lettuce,” Bruce Taylor said in the trade report. “They wanted consistent product at a stable price.” 

Contributing: Melina Khan

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: It's not just Taco Bell. Taylor Farms supplies lettuce to many US brands