The Food and Drug Administration said Taylor Farms lettuce provided a false positive when tested for the cyclospora parasite causing over 1,600 people to become ill, but that it doesn’t change initial conclusions, CNBC reported.
That agency said on Monday that the false positive does not change its conclusion that the parasite came from shredded iceberg lettuce from central Mexico and Taylor Farms, which is also served at some Taco Bell locations.
“FDA’s traceback investigation and outbreak data continue to converge on shredded iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms locations in central Mexico,” the FDA said in a statement. “FDA will continue to work with federal and state partners to investigate this multistate outbreak and ensure products implicated in this outbreak have been removed from the market.”
The investigation is ongoing. Foot traffic to Taco Bell dropped about 19% on Friday compared to day-of-the-week averages from 2026, research firm Placer.ai said.
