On October 2, 2026, the FDA concluded its investigation of the Cyclospora outbreak linked to shredded iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms de Mexico. The final federal count is 12,883 confirmed illnesses, 570 hospitalizations and two deaths in 21 states, with the last illness onset on August 17. CDC had already declared the outbreak over on September 11. What is new in FDA’s closing update is the laboratory result that has been pending since inspectors went to Mexico in August: of the samples collected there, two tested positive for Cyclospora, one from a tank holding outgoing wastewater at the Taylor Farms de Mexico processing facility and one from a drainage ditch at an iceberg lettuce grower identified in the traceback.
Cyclosporiasis is an intestinal illness caused by the parasite Cyclospora cayetanensis, which reaches food through water or soil contaminated with human feces. It is unlikely to pass directly from one person to another, which is why every outbreak question about this parasite comes back to the water.
What FDA found in Mexico
FDA’s traceback identified several farms and a processing facility in Mexico that supplied the recalled lettuce distributed by Taylor Fresh Foods. Working with Mexican officials, FDA inspected and collected samples at multiple iceberg lettuce growers and at the processing facility. The sampling covered water, soil, sediment and iceberg lettuce.
Two samples came back positive. The first was from a tank that held outgoing wastewater from the Taylor Farms de Mexico processing facility. The second was from a drainage ditch at one of the growers identified in the traceback. FDA reports no positive lettuce sample; both positives are environmental, and both are water.
For this parasite, that is where you would look first. Cyclospora does not grow in food. It arrives on produce from water or soil carrying human fecal contamination, and a positive wastewater tank at the plant plus a positive ditch at a farm are the two findings that say the contamination was in the environment the lettuce came out of. When I wrote last month that FDA’s samples from Mexico were still pending analysis and no root cause had been named, this is the result I was waiting for.
What the genotyping says, and what it does not say yet
On August 20, CDC reported that genotyping of samples from sick people showed the parasites that caused these illnesses were genetically related, which it called additional evidence that the patients got sick from the same source. That tied the patients to each other. It did not tie them to the lettuce, because there was no product or environmental isolate to compare them with.
Now there are two. FDA says genotyping of both environmental samples is complete and that it is continuing its analysis to determine how those results relate to the ongoing genotyping of clinical specimens. Read that sentence carefully. FDA has not said the parasite in the wastewater tank or the ditch matches the parasite in the patients. If it does, it would be the first laboratory link in this outbreak between the place the lettuce was grown and processed and the people who ate it. If it does not, that needs explaining too. Either way, the answer belongs on the public page, not in a file.
“Not enough evidence to conclusively determine how contamination occurred”
That is FDA’s sentence, not mine. The agency says the positive samples show Cyclospora was present in the environment where the lettuce was grown and processed, and that this adds to the strong epidemiological data and traceback convergence supporting the link to the recalled shredded iceberg lettuce. What FDA does not have is the mechanism: which water, which field, which step at the plant.
This is not the first time federal investigators have gone to a Taylor Farms de Mexico operation looking for this parasite. In 2013, after a Cyclospora outbreak linked to the company’s salad mix, FDA conducted an environmental assessment at the plant with five Mexican agencies, and shipments resumed on the company’s statement that it was testing its water. I have never found a public result from that testing. Thirteen years later there is a positive wastewater sample from the plant and a positive ditch at a grower. Whether that changes anything will be decided before the 2027 growing season, not after it.
The numbers, and the seven thousand who are not in them
The outbreak FDA closed today ends at 12,883 confirmed illnesses, 570 hospitalizations and two deaths, both in Michigan, with onsets running through August 17 in 21 states: Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. CDC’s final update noted that at the peak of the outbreak, before the recall, more than 1,000 infections occurred in a single day.
The recalled lettuce traveled further than the case map. FDA confirmed foodservice distribution of the recalled iceberg products from June 29 through July 16 in 31 states, with possible further distribution to the District of Columbia, Delaware, North Dakota, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and Washington. Marketside-brand iceberg salad and shredded lettuce with best-by dates of July 18 through August 3 went to select Walmart stores in 15 states. Taco Bell stopped using Taylor Farms de Mexico lettuce on July 17, the day of the recall, and FDA says the recalled product was also sold to consumers in Mexico.
Then there is the rest of the season. In its last weekly update on September 15, CDC counted 19,883 laboratory-confirmed cases of cyclosporiasis acquired in the United States between May 1 and August 31, with 1,064 hospitalizations and two deaths across 49 states and the District of Columbia. Set the 12,883 outbreak cases against that number and roughly 7,000 confirmed cases this season have no food named. The as-of dates differ by a few days, so treat the figure as an approximation, but even as an approximation it is almost six times the 1,180 cases CDC counted over the same stretch of 2025. Those 7,000 people are not part of the investigation FDA closed today.
What closing the file means if you got sick
For the agencies, closing the investigation means the recalled lettuce is gone from the market, the epidemiology is settled and the remaining work is prevention. FDA says it has posted updates on Cyclosporaprevention activities planned before the 2027 growing season on its Post-Outbreak Response Activities page, which already lists a September meeting between senior FDA and Mexican officials, a letter to industry asking for collaboration across the supply chain, and a promise to fold lessons learned into FDA’s CyclosporaPrevention, Response and Research Action Plan.
For the people counted in the 12,883, nothing closes on a schedule. FDA’s advisory itself warns that symptoms may seem to go away and then return one or more times, that complications can last a month or longer, and that immunocompromised people may be sick longer and more severely. If you had the symptoms after eating shredded iceberg lettuce this summer and were never tested, tell your doctor; a Cyclospora test has to be requested by name.
Marler Clark represents victims of this outbreak in states across the country and has filed lawsuits in federal courts in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Illinois against the Taylor Farms companies. Anyone diagnosed with cyclosporiasis in 2026 can contact the Marler Clark Cyclospora attorneys for a free case evaluation at 1-800-884-9840 or marler@marlerclark.com, and more information is available at marlerclark.com/foodborne-illnesses/cyclospora.
Three questions people are asking
Is the Cyclospora iceberg lettuce outbreak over?
Yes. CDC declared it over on September 11, 2026, and FDA closed its investigation on October 2. The recalled lettuce carried best-by dates no later than August 3 and should not be in any store or restaurant.
Did FDA find Cyclospora in the lettuce?
Not in the lettuce itself. FDA reports two positive environmental samples: a wastewater tank at the Taylor Farms de Mexico processing facility and a drainage ditch at a grower identified in the traceback. FDA has not yet said whether those parasites genetically match the ones found in patients.
Why did FDA close the investigation without finding the cause?
FDA says there is not enough evidence to conclusively determine how the contamination occurred, and that all recalled lettuce is off the market. It is continuing post-outbreak work with CDC, state and Mexican partners and says it will report prevention activities ahead of the 2027 growing season.