Farm Action report details the reach of Taylor Farms after a cyclospora outbreak hit 9,481 cases

Farm Action, which describes itself as a nonpartisan, farmer-led watchdog on corporate power in food and agriculture, has published a report on Taylor Farms, the produce company that federal investigators linked to this summer’s multistate cyclospora outbreak. The report, titled “Taylor Farms: How One Company’s Reach Became a National Risk,” is dated August 2026 and credits research to Sarah Carden, Colleen Fulton, Angela Huffman and Caroline Nodus, with writing by Jessica Cusworth.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in its most recent update, dated August 13, that the outbreak has reached 9,481 illnesses reported from 17 states, with at least 398 hospitalizations and two deaths in Michigan. The agency said epidemiologic and traceback data showed iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms de Mexico, a central Mexico-based processor, was contaminated with cyclospora. Illness onsets began June 14 and continued through August 3. Maine and Massachusetts were added to the outbreak after the August 5 update.

Farm Action’s report describes a company founded in 1995 that has grown to a $7 billion business with more than 25,000 employees and 30 processing facilities across the United States, Canada, Mexico and Europe. It produces more than 265 million servings of fresh food each week, according to the report, makes 40 percent of the salad kits sold in the country, and grows about one quarter of its own vegetables while sourcing the rest through partner farms.

Much of that volume reaches consumers under other brand names. The report says Taylor Farms does not publish a customer list because it is privately held, and that public records and recalls have linked its facilities to products sold through Kroger, Trader Joe’s, H-E-B, Meijer, Albertsons and Walmart, and through the foodservice distributors Sysco and US Foods.

The report places the company inside a longer shift in how produce is bought and sold. An estimated 80 to 90 percent of fresh produce is now marketed through grower-shipper-packers, it says, a model that favors suppliers able to deliver high volumes year round and across the country. Because those suppliers source through regional and international networks rather than nearby farms, the report says, investigators traced the lettuce implicated in the outbreak to Mexico in the middle of summer, when much of the United States is capable of growing lettuce.

Farm Action lists earlier food safety events connected to the company, including a 2026 salmonella outbreak linked to jalapeño products, previous cyclospora outbreaks, a 2024 E. coli outbreak linked to onions served at McDonald’s, and a 2021 E. coli cluster involving romaine lettuce. “These incidents do not by themselves prove a pattern of systemic problems,” the report says, adding that the repeated connection “warrants a closer look.”

On working conditions, the report says Taylor Farms has paid more than $1 million in penalties for violations cited by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, covering machine hazards, chemical exposure, electrical hazards, sanitation failures, amputations and a fatal workplace incident. It cites complaints from 2013 and 2014 by workers at the company’s Tracy, California, facility who reported pressure not to use the bathroom during shifts, denied meal breaks and firings after injuries. The report says those conditions do not establish that the company’s labor practices caused the outbreak.

The report also documents the company’s political spending. Taylor Farms and chief executive Bruce Taylor have donated millions to Republican and Trump administration-associated political action committees since 2025, it says, including $1 million each to MAGA Inc. and a super PAC dedicated to electing House Republicans, and the company has spent $810,000 on lobbying over the same period. On July 16, the day the Food and Drug Administration and CDC announced their outbreak investigation, Taylor Farms executives met with White House and FDA officials, according to the report, which says administration officials reported the company sought to distance itself from the outbreak and questioned the government’s conclusions.

Farm Action states that political contributions and lobbying “do not prove that government decisions were influenced by Taylor Farms.” Its recommendations include stronger antitrust enforcement against dominant produce firms, investment in regional processing and distribution, caps on farm subsidy payments, restored disclosure of White House visitor logs, a requirement that the FDA review major multistate outbreaks after they end, and prompt implementation of the agency’s Food Traceability Rule. The FDA proposed a 30-month extension of that rule’s compliance date in August 2025, moving it from January 20, 2026 to July 20, 2028.

Taylor Farms has contested the basis for the government’s conclusion. On its recall page, the company says it recalled all iceberg lettuce grown in central Mexico on July 17, that it “made this recall decision voluntarily, before FDA asked us to,” and that the recall was “broader than the lots suggested by FDA’s traceback.” It says epidemiological evidence “is a legitimate tool in outbreak investigations” but “cannot confirm that a specific product caused illness. That confirmation requires a positive lab test of the product.” As of August 13 the FDA had no confirmed positive test results for any Taylor Farms product, the page says, and the company’s own testing of approximately 2,000 samples taken in central Mexico since May has returned zero positive results.

The company also says it invests more than $200 million a year in independently audited food safety protocols, has suspended all iceberg lettuce sourcing and production from central Mexico, temporarily halted all production at that facility as of July 18, and commissioned outside experts to review it. Asked on the same page whether it opposes traceability legislation, the company answers: “That is absolutely false. Taylor Farms is a pioneer and industry leader in traceability. We fully support and endorse the Food Traceability Rule and have already implemented traceback protocols across our operations ahead of the compliance deadline.”

The CDC said the true number of people sickened is likely higher than the reported count, because some people recover without medical care and are never tested, and because it can take as long as six weeks to determine whether a case belongs to a cyclospora outbreak. The agency said it and the FDA are reporting laboratory confirmed cases only.