This time, the company is recalling prepared foods containing jalapeños over possible salmonella contamination amid a broader outbreak that has sickened 345 people across 27 states. Taylor Farms has said it is not aware of any illnesses linked specifically to its recalled products.
The voluntary recall, issued by the company on August 9, followed a Coast Citrus Distributors recall of jalapeños traced to a grower in Sinaloa, Mexico. Prepared products such as pico de gallo, guacamole, dips, burritos, and other items sold across 26 states are affected. Chipotle and Qdoba also stopped using the affected jalapeños.
This newest recall comes just weeks after Taylor Farms de Mexico recalled iceberg lettuce amid an ongoing cyclospora outbreak that, as of August 5, had sickened more than 6,300 people. The FDA has said that a false-positive test involving a single lettuce sample did not alter the broader epidemiological and traceback evidence supporting the recall.
Taylor Farms did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Here’s what to know about Taylor Farms, its founder, its rise in the produce industry, and other major moments in its history.
Taylor Farms traces its origins to Salinas, California, in 1995.
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The company was founded in 1995 in the Salinas Valley of California — often nicknamed the Salad Bowl of America for its fertile farmland — by Bruce Taylor, whose father and grandfather had also worked in the fresh produce industry.
More than 30 years later, Taylor remains the chairman and CEO of the company.
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Before founding Taylor Farms with a group of partners, Taylor also served as CEO of Fresh Express, a fresh produce brand later acquired by Chiquita Brands International.
Taylor still serves as the chairman and CEO of Taylor Farms.
Taylor Farms is a multibillion-dollar company with more than 24,000 employees.
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Taylor Farms is a $7 billion enterprise, according to UC Berkeley, that employs more than 24,000 people and operates 22 production locations across North America.
Its retail, prepared foods, and food service divisions produce bagged salads, meal kits, fresh-cut vegetables, and other ready-to-eat foods.
The company and its network of growers provide an estimated 265 million servings of fresh produce across North America each week, the company said.
The company helped popularize chopped salad kits and expanded by buying other major produce brands.
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Taylor Farms introduced the first branded prepackaged chopped salads in 2012, per UC Berkeley.
The company later continued to expand through acquisitions, including the organic produce brand Earthbound Farm in 2019 and the packaged salad brand Eat Smart in 2021.
A massive fire damaged Taylor Farms’ flagship Salinas facility in 2022.
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In April 2022, a fire broke out at Taylor Farms’ flagship facility in Salinas, California, destroying its 60,000-square-foot leafy-greens processing area.
The facility was rebuilt shortly after the fire and reopened a year later, with a new design designed to process over 15 million pounds of produce weekly.
Taylor Farms has previously been linked to major foodborne illness investigations.
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In 2013, restaurant-associated cyclospora illnesses in Iowa and Nebraska were linked to salad mix produced by Taylor Farms’ Mexico division. During the multistate outbreak, 631 illnesses were reported across 25 states, although the CDC determined that the number of cases likely represented multiple outbreaks linked to different food sources.
Taylor Farms was also linked to an E. coli outbreak in 2024 involving slivered onions served on McDonald’s Quarter Pounders. The company voluntarily recalled yellow onions supplied to McDonald’s and other food-service customers after 104 people were sickened across 14 states, 34 were hospitalized, and one died.
The FDA identified the recalled onions as the likely source of the illnesses.
By August 5, a cyclospora outbreak had grown to over 6,300 cases.
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The CDC and FDA said shredded iceberg lettuce served at some Taco Bell restaurants in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and West Virginia was linked with an ongoing cyclospora outbreak.
As of August 5, the 15-state outbreak included at least 6,358 confirmed illnesses, 278 hospitalizations, and two deaths. Not every Taco Bell restaurant in the affected states received the implicated lettuce.
The FDA said on July 17 that its traceback investigation identified a single supplier that provided the restaurants with iceberg lettuce grown in Mexico. The following day, the agency identified Taylor Farms de Mexico as that supplier. Taylor Farms said FDA traceback pointed to a specific independent farm as the potential source of the outbreak.
Taco Bell said it removed potentially affected lettuce from restaurants in select states and was indefinitely removing the supplier’s lettuce from its nationwide supply chain.
On July 17, Taco Bell said in a public statement that it had completed the removal of all affected Taylor Farms lettuce from its restaurants.
The FDA said an initial positive test of a lettuce sample from Taylor Farms was a false positive.
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The Food and Drug Administration previously said that a sample of Taylor Farms shredded iceberg lettuce had tested positive for cyclospora. On July 19, however, the agency said laboratory experts had reexamined the results and determined that the finding was a false positive. As of that date, the FDA said there were no confirmed positive product samples.
In a July 19 statement, Taylor Farms, a lettuce supplier for Taco Bell, said it welcomed the FDA’s update.
“Today, FDA apologized to us. Yesterday, FDA informed Taylor Fresh Foods that one of its iceberg lettuce products from central Mexico tested positive for cyclospora. Today, we were informed that FDA made a mistake, and this was a false positive,” Taylor Farms said in a statement.
On July 20, the FDA reiterated that the false-positive test did not change the basis for its ongoing outbreak investigation.
“To clarify, this false-positive lab sample DOES NOT change the basis for FDA’s ongoing outbreak investigation or the overwhelming epidemiological data supporting the current voluntary recall by Taylor Farms,” the FDA said in an X post on July 20.
The FDA and CDC are continuing to investigate the outbreak.
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As of August 5, cases involving exposure to recalled Taylor Farms de Mexico iceberg lettuce had been reported in 15 states.
Recalled Taylor Fresh Foods iceberg lettuce products were distributed to food-service customers across 28 states, while recalled Marketside-brand products were sold at select Walmart stores in 15 states. The FDA said additional implicated brands, restaurants, retailers, or distribution channels could still be identified as the investigation continues.
Taylor Farms de Mexico said it was voluntarily removing all iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico from the US market. The company said its Taylor Farms-branded salad kits do not contain iceberg lettuce.
The CDC is also investigating other nationwide cyclosporiasis outbreaks and illnesses that it says are from other sources and unrelated to this outbreak.
On August 9, Taylor Farms issued a voluntary recall of prepared products containing jalapeños that might be contaminated with salmonella.
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The recall is tied to a broader salmonella outbreak that the FDA linked to jalapeños in early August. FDA traceback identified a grower in Sinaloa, Mexico, whose jalapeños were distributed by Coast Citrus Distributors as the likely source of the outbreak, which, as of August 10, had resulted in 345 illnesses in 27 states.
The products recalled include pico de gallo, guacamole, dips, burritos, and other prepared foods, all of which have a “Best If Used By” date of August 16 or earlier.
Taylor Farms has said it stopped sourcing from the Sinaloa grower and that it is not aware of any illnesses linked to its recalled products.
Editor’s note: This story was originally published July 17 and updated on July 20 and August 10 to reflect the FDA’s most recent statements.
