Taylor Farms produces a significant portion of the lettuce and jalapeño peppers sold in America’s supermarkets and fast-food restaurants. Right now, many consumers are eager to identify exactly which outlets rely on the company for their produce supply.
Taylor Farms has recently been in the news due to a historic outbreak of cyclosporiasis, an illness characterized by what is often described as “explosive diarrhea.” The largest cluster of cases, centered in Michigan, was traced by the Food and Drug Administration to recalled iceberg lettuce grown by the produce giant. While this specific link was established, cases have been reported in 47 states in recent weeks, and experts caution that not all clusters have been linked to the same source.
In a separate development, Taylor Farms has issued a recall for a variety of food products containing jalapeños linked to an ongoing salmonella outbreak. These two health events do not appear to be related. The salmonella recall involves products sold at grocery stores including Walmart, Target, and Trader Joe’s in 26 states, according to an Aug. 9 FDA notice.
The cyclosporiasis outbreak is significantly larger, representing an unprecedented wave of infections since May that has resulted in two deaths. On July 17, Taylor Farms issued a voluntary recall of iceberg lettuce products, though the firm notes that the FDA reported “no confirmed positive sample results for product testing for Cyclospora” through Aug. 5.
The FDA has instructed Americans to avoid certain iceberg lettuce produced by Taylor Farms. However, consumers might have a hard time following that directive because it is difficult to determine the exact provenance of the lettuce in a restaurant taco, burger, or sub. Identifying the source of produce in a prepared meal remains a significant challenge for the average diner.
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. The company boasts $7 billion in revenues, 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. If you visit the company’s Find-a-Product page and type in your location, you will see a Who’s Who of American supermarkets and big-box retailers that carry Taylor Farms salad kits and other products, including Walmart, Target, Safeway, Whole Foods, Meijer, Vons, Food4Less, H-E-B, Sprouts, Fry’s, Albertsons, and Kroger.
Determining which specific restaurants use the company’s produce is trickier. 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 does not offer a full list of the big-name chain restaurants that serve its lettuce in 2026, which makes it difficult 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.
The company has faced various recalls over the years, though some have involved mislabeled products rather than potential pathogens. In 2025, Taylor Farms voluntarily recalled salad kits sold in 25 states over the presence of undeclared ingredients. In 2024, the company 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, it recalled roughly 2,100 pounds of mislabeled products containing a known allergen, and in 2017, it 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 have historically ascribed the volume of recalls to the company’s massive 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.
Taylor Farms was founded in 1995 by Bruce Taylor, a third-generation lettuce grower in California’s Salinas Valley. Around 2007, Taylor partnered with the Produce Marketing Association to create a Center for Produce Safety. In 2009, the company introduced “SmartWash Solutions,” which the Berkeley profile termed a revolutionary wash-water monitoring system to sanitize and prevent microbial cross-contamination. By 2012, Taylor Farms entered the supermarket industry with the first-ever branded prepackaged chopped salads with dressings and condiments. 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. “McDonald’s wanted shredded lettuce,” Bruce Taylor said in the trade report. “They wanted consistent product at a stable price.”