Customers enter a Taco Bell restaurant on July 14, 2026 in La Cañada Flintridge, California.
Mario Tama | fake images
Taco Bell has pulled lettuce linked to an outbreak of cyclosporiasis from restaurants, it said Friday.
Currently, the outbreak has affected more than 1,600 people in five states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The infection resembles a severe stomach virus and often begins to appear two to three weeks after people become infected with the parasite, according to the CDC. No deaths have been reported.
On Thursday, the agency said its source investigation linked the outbreak to shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell locations in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is working with the supplier to determine if the lettuce was also shipped elsewhere.
“Based on ongoing conversations with public health officials, and out of an abundance of caution, Taco Bell worked quickly to voluntarily remove the product from restaurants and the affected ingredient has been removed from our supply chain nationwide,” Taco Bell said.
Taco Bell's parent company, Yum brandssaw its shares fall nearly 7% in the last five days as the company dealt with the health issue. Other food companies that sell fresh lettuce also saw their shares fall, such as the salad chain. sweet greenwhich plummeted nearly 13% this week, and the fast-casual chain diggingwhich sank more than 3%. Shares of Sweetgreen and Cava rose more than 17% and about 2% on Friday, respectively, due to apparent relief that the CDC did not identify their ingredients as potential sources of cyclosporiasis.
While Taco Bell or other restaurant chains may take a temporary hit to sales as headlines about the outbreak mount, particularly in states hardest hit by it, analysts said any decline in revenue or stock prices likely won't last. Still, it remains to be seen whether the CDC identifies other restaurant chains as possible sources of the outbreak.
The affected lettuce at Taco Bell was reportedly traced back to supplier Taylor Farms, which distributes the product to many restaurant chains and sells it directly to most grocery stores.
Taylor Farms, the same company linked to McDonald's 2024 E. Coli outbreak, said in a statement Friday that it has removed all iceberg lettuce from central Mexico. The company added that none of its branded salads or kits are associated with the outbreak.
“While FDA tracing indicates a specific independent farm, representing less than 1% of the U.S. iceberg lettuce supply, as a potential source of the outbreak, we have removed all iceberg lettuce from the region indefinitely,” the company said.
Sweetgreen and other restaurant companies issued statements this week saying they did not believe their ingredients had been affected. The salad chain said it does not use iceberg lettuce on its menu.
“Since the beginning of the investigation, we have been in close contact with our suppliers to determine if any ingredients in our supply chain have been identified as part of the investigation. To date, none have been,” the company said.
chipotlewhich did not see as much stock movement this week, said in a statement Friday that it does not serve shredded iceberg lettuce at its locations and that it does not believe its ingredients are associated with the outbreak.
The effects on sales and stocks
Yum Brands Stock
Analysts say the outbreak probably won't have a major effect on Yum Brands' stock, especially given how restaurants have fared during previous health concerns.
That doesn't mean it won't have a temporary effect. Recent data from Placer.ai found that chains serving fresh lettuce saw a decline in foot traffic over the past week, with Taco Bell's dropping nearly 6% and Panera Bread dropping more than 7%.
TD Cowen analyst Andrew Charles told CNBC he believes the impact of the cyclosporiasis outbreak will be limited to a quarter risk to the company and will culminate in a rapid recovery. He said he hopes that arc looks similar to how quickly both McDonald's and Wendy's were recovered from separate E. coli outbreaks in 2024 and 2022, respectively.
“Social media just leads to much greater short-term memory loss,” Charles said. “Both times we saw an impact of a quarter or less. It's a similar setup here too.”
He added that the outbreak is also limited to Taco Bell's toppings rather than the meat itself, which is a core offering and would likely have a larger impact on consumer behavior. The Covid-19 pandemic has also lessened the impact of food safety concerns on the broader industry in recent years, he added.
“We'll just have to wait and see from here,” Charles said.
Analysts at Evercore ISI wrote in a Friday note that they believe the outbreak will shift from a supplier issue to a supplier issue as attention shifts from Taco Bell to Taylor Farms.
“Our assumption is that in the coming weeks this food safety issue will fade from the headlines and, to the extent it persists, it is more related to the supplier than to Taco Bell specifically,” the analysts wrote.
While lower demand in affected Midwestern states will likely last longer than in other areas of the U.S., Evercore analysts said Taco Bell could return to positive same-store sales growth in a matter of weeks, just as McDonald's did in about six weeks in 2024. That's especially since the company has recently been “firing on all cylinders” with strong sales numbers, they added.
“The historical playbook for food safety fears that do not carry any confirmed brand-level links or deaths points to one to two quarters of demand and stock that tends to recover within two quarters,” the analysts wrote.
It's also a lesson in marketing and brand loyalty for Taco Bell and other restaurants, according to Gerry Chiaro, associate professor of marketing at Northwestern University. The company will need to regain customer trust, as other restaurants such as McDonald's, Wendy's and Chipotle have done in the past after health problems.
“They have to be responsible for it. They can't blame anyone, even if they are in some ways victims of their supplier's food safety policies, processes and measures,” Chiaro told CNBC. “But you can't blame him because the customer sees Taco Bell as the brand, and Taco Bell is the one they interact with.”
Because health problems like the cyclosporiasis outbreak occur frequently and are common in any restaurant that serves fresh food, Chiaro said the manual is becoming more common. And since Taco Bell has already issued a statement and recalled its infected ingredients, Chiaro said it's likely to follow the recovery trend of other companies.
“Very clear, responsible and transparent communication, a new commitment to our health security and our food safety processes can improve them,” he stated.
