Happy Friday, and welcome to Food Fix. I’m thinking of all of you suffering with terrible air quality right now from the wildfires in Canada. I’ve been through smoke season in Washington state too many times. It’s awful! Get an indoor air filter, if you don’t have one. It helps a lot.
New Forked: There’s a new episode of Forked out this week! Theodore Ross and I discuss the wild rise of GLP-1s, the MAHA alliance on life support and more.
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Helena
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Feds zero in on cyclospora source: Iceberg lettuce from Mexico
We are one step closer to knowing what might be causing the unprecedented and disastrous surge in cyclospora cases in the U.S. right now. As of today, we’re looking at nearly 7,000 cases — more than double where we were last week — and that’s almost certainly an undercount.
The Washington Post scooped Thursday that federal officials are investigating Taco Bell and specifically their iceberg lettuce supplier, Taylor Farms, as a likely source of contamination. If you’re not familiar: Taylor Farms is probably the largest lettuce (and fresh cut produce) supplier in North America, if not globally. They are everywhere. The company has dozens of produce processing plants across the United States, Canada, Mexico and Western Europe — they are a huge supplier to retailers, restaurants and food service.
Around 1 a.m. ET, FDA sent out an alert confirming this reporting except the agency did not name Taylor Farms as the source: “Based on epidemiological information collected by CDC, a total of 1,644 people infected with Cyclospora and reporting exposure to Taco Bell have been reported by five states. Illnesses started on dates ranging from May 13, 2026, to July 13, 2026. There have been 94 hospitalizations, and no deaths have been reported. [Michigan] analyzed food exposure details from 190 of the cases who reported eating at Taco Bell and shared these findings with CDC. Ingredient level analyses on meals eaten by these cases indicate that 90% of those interviewed reported eating iceberg lettuce.”
The FDA said its investigation identified a single supplier of iceberg lettuce from Mexico used by Taco Bell locations where people ate before becoming ill, but the agency does not name the company that supplied the lettuce. I find this frankly astonishing — the FDA knows who the supplier is (Taylor Farms), and there is no justification for not releasing this information to the public.
The revelation comes just days after Michigan health officials said they were circling lettuce or leafy greens as a potential culprit, though state officials were careful to say the link hadn’t been proven and they hadn’t pinned down a particular brand or supplier.
It’s not just Taco Bell: While Taco Bell is dominating the headlines, all of the reporting indicates that not everyone who got sick ate at Taco Bell. This raises a lot of questions about where else cyclospora-contaminated lettuce (or potentially other produce) might have been served and sold. It also appears likely that we are having multiple cyclospora outbreaks simultaneously. The FDA alert covers only five of the 34 states currently investigating cyclospora cases.
Social sleuths: You may recall that last week I noted a whole bunch of consumers on Threads were sure they had pinned the culprit. If you look back, you’ll see that Taylor Farms was trending as thousands of posts discussed whether their lettuce was to blame. This was unconfirmed and speculative, but the sleuths may have turned out to be right.
“Shoutout to ThreadsCDC for completing their investigation last week and letting us all know Taylor Farms was the likely source of the outbreak,” wrote one consumer this week. Another posted: “All these latecomers with the breaking news about Taylor Farms, yeah babes – we know, where have you been?”
Internet sleuthing aside, I hope that CDC and FDA start issuing a lot more information about this outbreak and the other cyclospora outbreaks happening right now. There are still so many people afraid to eat fresh produce because they fear getting this parasite, which now infects hundreds if not thousands of Americans each summer. (Yes, we have a cyclospora season now — not good! But what’s happening this year is far and away worse than anything we’ve seen.)
So bad: This is a full-blown disaster — we haven’t seen a foodborne outbreak this large in more than three decades — and it demands a strong response from the government. Instead, we are getting a non-stop stream of headlines and punditry reminding us that this administration has cut food safety staffing as well as funding for public health infrastructure at the state and local levels. The reality is that cyclospora is now a serious public health concern, and it didn’t used to be. We need a functioning public health system for precisely these types of threats. This week, even food industry groups expressed concern about the Trump administration’s handling of the current outbreak.
Of course food industry leaders don’t want to make people sick, but it’s also true that these outbreaks are so very bad for business. An outbreak like this could easily dampen lettuce consumption for a decade. It shouldn’t be lost on anyone that we have an administration urging Americans to “Eat real food” and a whole lot of fear around produce at the moment.
White House response: Top Trump administration officials, for their part, do not believe cuts to food safety staffing are hampering the investigation.
“The White House is closely monitoring the situation, has a handle on the situation,” said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, during the press briefing on Thursday.
Leavitt was specifically asked whether not having permanent leaders at FDA and CDC and funding cuts have slowed the response.
“Not at all,” she said. “They have the resources they need to make sure that Americans are fully informed and protected from this illness during this time.”
It should be noted that we’ve seen bad cyclospora outbreaks before where investigators didn’t ever figure out the source. It’s a really challenging bug to investigate, but those investigations didn’t take the same level of heat because those outbreaks weren’t this huge and didn’t come in the wake of substantial government cuts.
Imagine how much staffing it takes for a local health department to call and interview the thousands of people who have been reported sick in the past few weeks. It takes people. It takes expertise. It takes all levels of government working together, including local, state and federal to figure something like this out. We need the system to work because we can’t live in fear of lettuce.
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What I’m reading
Lab closures threaten Cyclospora research as parasite outbreak sickens thousands (Bloomberg). “Food-safety experts warned that plans to shutter a US Department of Agriculture research facility will hinder efforts to protect consumers from the foodborne cyclospora parasite — a risk that’s underscored by the outbreak that’s spreading across the country,” report Kristina Peterson and Elizabeth Elkin. “The agency is in the process of closing the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center just north of Washington, DC, and relocating its programs to facilities across the country under a restructuring plan announced last year. The center has two laboratories that play a significant role in investigating cyclospora as well as coordinating research with other federal agencies. A representative for the USDA said that cyclospora research at the Beltsville center is continuing without disruption, without offering further details.”
General Mills recalls nearly 736,000 Pillsbury rolls due to possible glass contamination (CBS News). “General Mills is recalling nearly 736,000 Pillsbury bread rolls because they may contain glass, according to a notice posted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration earlier this week,” reports Mary Cunningham. “Based on a description on General Mills’ website, the bread rolls are geared more toward businesses rather than individual consumers. ‘Thaw, proof and bake for easy back-of-house preparation and low labor,’ the description for the Pillsbury Kaiser roll product reads. The recall includes 3,080 cases of Pillsbury Bread Rolls ’Hard Roll Dough’ … and 1,260 cases of Pillsbury Bread Rolls ‘Kaiser Roll Dough,’ each containing 144 rolls, for a total of 181,440 rolls.”
Defining ultraprocessed foods proves ‘challenging,’ FDA food head says (Food Dive). “ FDA’s acting head of food on Tuesday admitted crafting its highly anticipated definition of ultraprocessed foods is proving ‘quite challenging,’ though he added it’s still a ‘priority’ for the agency,” reports Sarah Zimmerman. “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has pushed the FDA to define ultraprocessed foods, which could inform future regulations, including front-of-pack labeling or ingredient restrictions. Kennedy, who has called ultraprocessed foods ‘poison,’ initially said the agency would release a proposed definition by April, though it has yet to do so.”
USDA launches initiative to expand healthier school meals (Fox23). “The U.S. Department of Agriculture is encouraging states and school districts to expand access to healthier meals for students through a new nationwide initiative,” reports Sasha Moore. “The USDA is asking states to join its Healthier School Meals Pledge, committing to serve more whole, nutritious foods in school cafeterias while promoting healthier cooking methods and smarter snack options. The USDA said states are encouraged to work with local school districts to implement the pledge and strengthen school meal programs.”
MAHA picked a fight with the wrong 89-year-old (Consumed). “Last week, a video of a panel discussion at the Aspen Institute began making its way around the internet,” writes Jane Black. “These are usually staid affairs. And there was no reason to believe this one, a discussion between nutritionist and food politics expert Marion Nestle and Calley Means, a senior adviser to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., would be much different. But the conversation was fiery. In it, Means followed his usual playbook. He bullied and insulted Nestle, attacking her for even daring to question the wisdom––or scientific evidence supporting––the Trump administration’s food policies. It was painful to watch. But Nestle, who literally wrote the book on food politics, is a pro. If anyone could take the heat, I figured, it was she. But Means didn’t let up. In classic fashion, Nestle then published a line-by-line refutation of Means’ accusations.”
Setting the record straight: Calley Means (Food Politics). “Tim Carman, contacted me for comment about a speech he heard made by RFK Jr’s top food advisor, Calley Means, in which Means made patently false charges about my work,” writes Marion Nestle. “Tim Carman sent me a transcript of Means’ remarks. Carman asked: ‘Any of this true?’ Good grief no. Not only are these statements false; they are spectacularly false. Let’s take them line by line.”
As midterms near, MAHA anger over pesticides reaches boiling point (Washington Post). “South Dakota farmer Jonathan Lundgren was perplexed last month while he was in the Oval Office,” writes Rachel Roubein. “Brooke Rollins, Lundgren recalled, indicated that an hours-old Supreme Court ruling that limits lawsuits over a popular weed killer’s possible health impacts was a win for farmers. Regenerative farmers like Lundgren view the active ingredient in the pesticide Roundup, glyphosate, as a harmful chemical that helped inspire the MAHA movement. Five days after the White House meeting, EPA approved several new pesticides. The MAHA movement, which formed out of the 2024 political alliance between Trump and Kennedy, comprises various factions, such as those pushing for healthier foods, tighter regulations over pesticides and eliminating vaccine mandates. Activists focused on pesticides have grown frustrated with some Trump administration policies over the last year, and point to polling that shows Americans across the political spectrum are seeking changes to the nation’s agriculture system.”
Pesticide lobbying group hosts MAHA champion at tony ag soiree (E&E News). “Senior White House Adviser and Make America Healthy Again champion Calley Means was a guest of Washington’s top pesticide lobbying group at a dinner celebrating agriculture Monday evening,” reports Marcia Brown. “A close ally of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Means has long blamed pesticides for Americans’ rising rates for chronic disease and called for more farmers to switch to regenerative agriculture practices that don’t require pesticides and herbicides. Means was seated next to CropLife America President and CEO Alex Dunn during the dinner at George Washington’s Mount Vernon celebrating 250 years of American agriculture, the group confirmed. CropLife America was the event’s coordinator for sponsorships, which cost as much as $15,000 for a table of 12. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins headlined the event.”
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