Confusing product recall adds to US cyclospora outbreak uncertainty

A customer reaches for Taylor Farms bagged salads for sale at a grocery store in Hercules, California, US, on 17 July 2026. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images View image in fullscreen A customer reaches for Taylor Farms bagged salads for sale at a grocery store in Hercules, California, US, on 17 July 2026. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images Confusing product recall adds to US cyclospora outbreak uncertainty Explosive diarrhea infection detected in 41 states with at least 72 sickened by new, as yet unknown source of parasite Confusion abounds in the cyclospora outbreak that has sickened thousands in at least 41 states, as officials identify a new cluster of cases and more potential products come under scrutiny. The recall of products during this outbreak of explosive diarrhea has been an unusual one, complicated by poor communication, politicization and the delay of a new regulatory rule could have helped trace the cyclosporiasis outbreak faster. At least 72 people have been sickened by another as-yet unknown source of cyclospora, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is now tracing back to the potential contamination source, according to an update from the agency on Wednesday. It joins another investigation, still ongoing, that led to shredded iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms, a mega-producer based in the US with facilities in Mexico. Officials in North Carolina also identified parsley and cilantro, in addition to lettuce, as potentially linked to the state’s 561 confirmed cases. “The amount of cases we’re having right now is incredibly high, and it’s clear that there’s multiple outbreaks happening all at once,” said Katelyn Jetelina, science communicator and founder of Your Local Epidemiologist. “The news of another cluster isn’t too surprising to me. What is is how little information was given. The communication just continually is falling short, which is leaving all of us on the outside to put these puzzle pieces together.” With all clusters of cases, “the key question is whether the source can stop,” said Joshua Sharfstein, a public health professor at Johns Hopkins University and former principal deputy commissioner at the FDA. If there was a confined burst of contamination, the outbreak could end soon; but if the soil or water is still contaminated, “then there’s a risk of ongoing contamination, and that’s kind of what FDA has to worry about,” he said. And “the ability to say all the downstream products – that has traditionally been very hard”. RFK Jr says cyclospora outbreak is ‘under control’ after FDA recall reversal Read more A new regulation was supposed to help with all of that. Last year, the FDA proposed the Food Traceability Rule in order to more quickly track and identify foods at high risk of being contaminated by foodborne pathogens – including iceberg lettuce. “This is exactly the sort of gap that the food traceability list is meant to close,” Jetelina said. The new regulation was required by the Food Safety Modernization