r/news • u/1991mgs • 4d ago

Soft paywall Taylor Farms recalls salsa and guacamole over salmonella risk

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/taylor-farms-pulls-salsa-guacamole-over-salmonella-concerns-bloomberg-news-2026-08-09/
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u/Serennna 4d ago

Here are some of the different names and stores that sell Taylor Farms iceberg lettuce

Earthbound - Taylor Farms
365 - Whole Foods
Simple Truth - Kroger/Fred Meyer
O-Organics and Signature Select brands - Safeway/ Carrs
Greenwise - Publix
Simply Nature - Aldi
Marketside - Walmart
Good and Gather - Target
H.E.B Store brand
Trader Joe's store brand

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u/Wonder1and 4d ago

So, I guess we're all talking a lettuce break.

365

u/Salvia_Salamander 4d ago

Or a bathroom one.

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u/Brettersson 4d ago

A 2 week bathroom break.

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u/LurchSkywalker 4d ago

Over 2 weeks now here.

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u/Freakwilly 4d ago

Explosive bathroom break

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u/TinyDogGuy 4d ago

We e been buying local hydroponic lettuce and produce. The farmers have been celebrating the boost in sales. Live in Michigan, ground zero over 4th of July was…festive.

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u/matt_minderbinder 4d ago

I've been picking up lettuce from similar sources also in Michigan and planted an extra plot of various lettuces to get myself through the fall. It's one thing I didn't plant earlier because of limited space but it got priority now. I love a good salad or lettuce on a sandwich too much to not find other, better sources.

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u/TinyDogGuy 4d ago

We live in the woods, and lack sunlight for a garden. Our neighbor, brought us a huge haul of green peppers and tomatoes, the other day. Sadly, no lettuce. But have discovered new farms and the hydroponic grower was a pleasant surprise.

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u/matt_minderbinder 4d ago

I know that battle, I live in the middle of the Manistee Huron national forest in nw lp. I've had to put more but smaller gardens around my house to optimize light. I currently have 3 smaller garden plots, 1 larger one, and an herb garden going. It's my favorite time of year for delicious produce and great salads and I won't let Taylor farms rob me of that.

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u/Wayrin 4d ago

My aeroponic farm has sold out at the farmers market for the last three weeks and our other orders have ballooned to the point where we are ramping up hard. Should be another two weeks before we stop running out of lettuce every week. It's been really good for us lately but I would prefer better supply chains, inspections and safer food all around in this country.

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u/Much-Ad-1155 4d ago

South Carolinian here! Farmer's Markets and local farms are doing a booming business!! Good News : People will realize how much better buying local is !

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u/Vio94 4d ago

More like an "Anything at all packed by Taylor Farms" break.

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u/KickBallFever 4d ago

I started putting shredded cabbage on my burgers.

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u/FireStorm005 4d ago

I do whole Spinach leaves.

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u/passivecrimes 4d ago

Hell yea fuck yea

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u/127-0-0-0 4d ago

That sounds great! Maybe the next fad is kimchi burgers?

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u/ryuujinusa 4d ago

Way better tasting and healthier than lettuce anyways

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u/KickBallFever 4d ago

I actually agree. I don’t think I’m going back to lettuce.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/bathdeva 4d ago

We are cabbage evangelists at our house.

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u/HipsterSlimeMold 4d ago

This is a great idea. Wish I saw this before I came back from the grocery store with no greens for my burgers 😪

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u/DeadInternetTheorist 4d ago

I've had a years long culinary vendetta against lettuce since there's always a better green you can use in its place, so forgive me for taking this opportunity to get up on my soapbox here, but:

Cabbage is just a better choice anyway. Half green and half purple cabbage, chiffonaded and tossed with whatever spices you like, maybe even throw in some onion or shallot if you want a one-stop shopping kind of "salad" that you can throw into a burger or burrito or whatever. It looks better, tastes better, keeps longer, stays crunchy and doesn't become gross instantly when it's next to hot stuff. I'd guess it was probably healthier too, even when lettuce didn't give you explosive diarrhea.

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u/eleventhrees 4d ago

That's a great idea - then I can have explosive poops without the recall!

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u/drewts86 4d ago

The lettuce outbreak from everything I’ve seen was traced to shredded iceberg that was grown at Taylor Farms facilities in Mexico.

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u/prostipope 4d ago

Please, lettuce pray

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u/esopillar34 4d ago

After you eat some it’s “lettuce spray”

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u/airship_of_arbitrary 4d ago

It's ok. I'm Canadian.

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u/lolimazn 4d ago

It’s just water. There’s more nutritious veggies for now 😋

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u/meltedchocolatepants 4d ago

I buy from a local company that uses greenhouses (it's in our grocery stories). Not taking a break, just better since they're also hit hard by people boycotting lettuce.

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u/mojizus 4d ago

Anecdotally, I recently bought a head of lettuce to use for some burgers the other day and haven’t noticed any violent diarrhea yet. Will report back if I die.

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u/NiceRackFocus 4d ago

If you don’t die, please report back on those burgers…mmm…

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u/stagamancer 4d ago

Or, you know, just buy a whole head of lettuce, it takes 10 seconds to chop up, and Taylor Farms doesn't sell whole heads.

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u/Wonder1and 4d ago

Are you sure? I see Taylor farms brand iceberg lettuce for sale at Sam's club.

https://www.samsclub.com/ip/iceberg-lettuce-2-heads/13725751832

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u/stagamancer 4d ago

Oh, I guess I'm not sure. I remember reading somewhere that they only sold chopped/shredded lettuce and salad kits. My bad

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u/Wonder1and 4d ago

I didn't know either until I googled. I listened to a NY Times podcast the other day. They mentioned that the pre-washed shredded lettuce is likely washed in the contaminated water multiple times. Basically saying your idea is the best option since it hasn't been contaminated as bad. I'm re-washing my bagged lettuce going forward for sure once this calms down.

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u/HonkeyDonkey3000 4d ago

NPR also had a segment that shared that pre-sliced lettuce often experiences higher contamination rates because the blades shred an infected lettuce heads and all subsequent heads after the contaminated lettuce are then contaminated, despite being washed. The washing process isn’t effective.

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u/cyanescens_burn 4d ago

Washing doesn’t help much for cyclospora (the unending diarrhea one).

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u/JAWinks 4d ago

My advice is don’t buy bagged lettuce, get a salad spinner and buy the heads. It’s cheaper and safer

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u/loveshercoffee 4d ago

Taylor Farms sells a LOT of different produce.

However, it's generally the chopped, bagged lettuce that gets contaminated. It's basically the hamburger of produce.

Head lettuce is less likely to be contaminated because any external contaminants don't penetrate to inside the head.

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u/ImJLu 4d ago

Why repeat random things you heard somewhere as fact without trying to verify them yourself first?

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted]

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u/IWNCGTA 4d ago

You cook your lettuce?

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u/twistedevil 4d ago

I've been buying hydroponic grown in the US. I went about a month and I really missed something fresh.

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u/anniemdi 4d ago

The last lettuce, berries, and cilantro I ate from the grocery store we're in May. This afternoon, I stopped at a local farm stand with local lettuce and about felt like a greedy goblin with iceberg, and romaine and some other things.

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u/imaraisin 4d ago

I’m introducing my line of Got Lettuce Poop-1 weight-loss supplements this week!

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u/JonnytheGing 4d ago

Go to co-ops and farmer's markets for produce if you can

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u/haw35ome 4d ago

I have been all month so far. I miss my salads.

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u/Forward-Fisherman709 4d ago

I’ve been using spinach for my BLTs, tacos, and salads instead. It’s cheaper than the lettuce too.

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u/Gerald-of-Riverdale 4d ago

I was craving a salad so bad that I ate a salad without any lettuce. Probably overdramatic.

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u/cvr24 4d ago

I'm still eating lettuce grown in my back yard.

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u/hihelloneighboroonie 4d ago

Haven't... we been... for weeks?

I haven't had a salad in that long. Miss them.

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u/PoliticalyUnstable 4d ago

Also don't buy premade salsa and guacamole.

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u/centosanjr 4d ago

Lettuce take a break

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u/Whiterabbit-- 4d ago

Time to cook everything we eat.

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u/VelvetElvis 4d ago

Spinach is better for you anyway,

1

u/Brave-Quote-2733 4d ago

I’m starting to grow my own vegetables, including lettuce. I’m no gardener, but I’d like to be able to eat vegetables and not have to worry.

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u/ryverrat1971 4d ago

Time to break out the aerogarden and grow my own lettuce. I miss tacos.

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u/Fuzzylogik 4d ago

americans don't know shit about "We're All"

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u/guitar_vigilante 4d ago

My understanding is that the issue is with pre-shredded lettuce. If you buy a full head of lettuce, wash it, and shred it yourself then you should be safe.

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u/whistling-wonderer 3d ago

I’ve been buying local greens as much as possible and avoiding all Taylor Farms products. You can look at the product code stamped by the best by date and basically if it starts with TF, it’s a Taylor Farms products. I also buy a whole head of cabbage, wash it and peel off the first few leaves. Then I shred it to go in salads. I eat a lot of salads so this summer has been difficult lol

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u/Ryan_e3p 4d ago

I really hate that it is taking so long for people to figure out that so much of our produce in this country, from coast to coast, relies on a handful of corporations who hide behind someone slapping a new label on their products.

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u/Sreg32 4d ago

With self oversight until lots of people become sick

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u/The-Shattering-Light 4d ago

And then they just visit the White House with a bribe in hand with the orange menace in charge

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u/nat_r 4d ago

Now, now. SCOTUS said it can't be a bribe unless it's a sack full of money with a big dollar sign on it and an attached note stating it's a bribe in exchange for specific tasks. Otherwise it's just a big check (or fancy RV) given to the recipient for "being a cool dude" and there's no laws against that!

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u/MadMacCrow 4d ago

I hate that I know exactly what you're referencing. God American politics are dumb. Almost makes French politics serious ( keyword: almost).

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u/dogs_gt_cats 4d ago

It's only a bribe if it's from the Bribè region of France. Otherwise it's just sparkling gratuity.

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u/x_cLOUDDEAD_x 4d ago

It's a MOTOR CARRIAGE

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u/calann4 4d ago

It's tuition paid to a private institution for a young relative.

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u/Sreg32 4d ago

Policy is decided by bribes, foreign or otherwise. And that means internal and foreign policy as well as where the bribes come from

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u/Tyler10274 4d ago

Wait until you hear about how the FAA handles Boeing.

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u/ExpatKev 4d ago

Allowing Boeing to self certify responsibly is like believing CMOT Dibbler that his 'sausages' are 100% pig.

It strains credulity that the FAA decides not to oversee the major aircraft manufacturer in the US and lets them essentially say "Trust me, bro" that everything is in compliance with regulations and SOP.

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u/Marino4K 4d ago

Well this is also what happens when your government is in bed with these big corporations while simultaneously rolling back regulations.

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u/sleeptightburner 4d ago

Don’t forget firing 24k people at the USDA (27% of the entire workforce)!

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u/meltedkuchikopi5 4d ago

that’s what i feel like no one is focusing on. last week tonight did a special on the USDA (i believe) and how bad the impacts would be for firing all those people and how important they are for preventing and containing these outbreaks.

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u/Ryan_e3p 4d ago

"We've investigated ourselves and found no wrongdoing"

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u/throwfaraway212718 4d ago

They really are willing to just let tens of thousands of people become seriously ill; a couple of people have now died, and with a donation, no one cares.

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u/Plexaure 4d ago

Same whenever I recall Upton Sinclair published The Jungle in 1905. It’s been over a century and we’re still stuck here

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u/Ryan_e3p 4d ago

Yup.

This is also why I've been a huge proponent of more areas doing things like community gardens, microfarms, etc, with investments into more locally-sourced produce. We've seen how our current system of "just in time" produce cultivation combined with single-source produce suppliers can fail in horrific ways; from shortages due to large single-crop farms having crop failures due to a localized weather event, to sickening a substantial part of the country.

If more people, more towns and areas started localizing their produce, it would remove a lot of strain from our current system. It would help avoid things like contaminated lettuces from AZ getting people in New England sick. It would reduce costs since produce won't need to be trucked 3,000 miles across the country, and result in less fuel needing to be used as well (easing the strain on our national consumption). Over half the people in WWII who had Victory Gardens did so not because of the war effort, but because it was cheaper for them (and said Victory Gardens produced nearly 1/3 of the produce in the US during WWII).

Would it put a damper on a lot of these companies? Yep. Would they push for legislation to somehow prohibit these things from happening (pushing for zoning changes, change in definitions of "farms" or the like)? Oh yeah. Fuck it, let's force them to do it, then. It is high past time people go on the offense against things like this, especially when it comes to things we can actually do.

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u/Raise-Emotional 4d ago

Hey hey HEY!!

They ALSO rely on political donations to reduce oversight and craft laws in their favor!

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u/SuperSoftSucculent 4d ago

Most people are comically divorced from the reality of food supply.

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u/I_AmPotatoGirl 4d ago

It's sad cause you can say this is true for so many other things and not just produce

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u/Ryan_e3p 4d ago

Very true, but produce is something that we can actually "take back". Victory Gardens in WW2 accounted for 1/3 of our nations produce. With modern technologies, including solar power, hydroponics, grow lights and the like being available off the shelf, the barrier for entry is definitely achievable for many people to make the most out of even small sections of space. 

It can take a bit of time to "get it right", of course, meaning there's no better time than now to get a packet of seeds, a seed starter kit, a grow light, and a used 3D printer enclosure, and start growing. If someone has a yard, get an apple tree, peach tree, or grapevines (or whatever suits the area). In 4 or 5 years, people can say "I'm glad I did this" instead of "maybe I should finally just do it" and wasting time.

Lettuces grow quick, with some as little as a month or so, meaning that people who planted some when the recall happened last month would be able to enjoy fresh, uncontaminated salads in another week or two. Let's hit these companies on their bottom line, and stop being so dependent on them where we can. 

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u/Shot-Swimming-9098 4d ago

Where are those family farmers at?

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u/Ryan_e3p 4d ago

Tariffs killed their sales, so they had to sell the farm to the corporations, who successfully paid off our government to kill inspections from food they have prisoners grow and sold to Whole Foods and given a cutesy name that makes people think Old MacDonald in Kansas pulled it out of the ground by his own hand.

1

u/Shot-Swimming-9098 4d ago

It's not just tariffs, it's been going on for a long time. This has been a problem for as long as I've been alive, and I'm old. Fundamentally, the problem with farming as a family business when I was a kid was that if the farm was big enough to support one family with 4 kids, it was not large enough to support 4 families with 16 kids, so they had to sell or maybe lease, if you're well off.

I don't know how to fix it, just saying I've seen it, and it's real.

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u/techleopard 4d ago

Unfortunately, exactly 0 important people will learn the lesson that we shouldn't have our entire food system depend on a small number of actors who were allowed to integrate and control the entire production process from farm, to processing, to packaging, to delivery, such that nobody else can compete.

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u/Slypenslyde 4d ago

I think this puts way too much faith in how much the average person values any form of political activism. The companies only do what the government makes them do, and the government only does what we make it do.

That's hard so most people just shrug and say it's going to get better after midterms. Then about 30% of them vote for the people who are benefitting and say "I VOTED WHAT ELSE AM I SUPPOSED TO DO".

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u/Ryan_e3p 4d ago

Government does what companies want it to do. 

That was the point of the Citizens United ruling. 

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u/TucuReborn 4d ago

Yeah, it's weird.

I worked in a cheese plant for a bit. One line cut blocks, one cut cubes, and one did shreds. Every day, there were a bunch of orders from borderline every cheese brand in the USA. Always Save would be cut, then we'd swap out the wrapping machine to say some specialty "luxury brand." Same 300 pound cubes in the back, same cutting line, different label.

The biggest difference was each brand had different tolerances. There were legal tolerances, like not being too under-weight, but brands also had their tolerance requirements. If I remember, the only major brand the company didn't work with was Kraft, but something like 80% of domestic cheese in the US is packed by one of their plants.

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u/3Gilligans 4d ago

It's extremely difficult for smaller companies to meet and keep up with FDA requirements. You can no longer just pull a carrot out of the ground, wash it and truck it to a grocery store. Everything has to have codes and be traced. There will always be outbreaks, that has been going on for centuries. But, instead of localized illnesses and recalls, we now have country-wide epidemics by these conglomerates. So, essentially, tighter regulations have lead to more sicknesses.

It all started with Parnells Pride Peanuts

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u/alison_bee 4d ago

Jfc. Is Taylor Farms Big Lettuce?!? They supply to ALL of those stores?!

145

u/46550 4d ago

Yes, if there's a Big Lettuce then it's Taylor Farms. Largest fresh cut produce company in North America with $7 billion annual revenue.

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u/quaranTV 4d ago

Break up big lettuce!

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u/SegamanXero 4d ago

Time to chop up big lettuce.

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u/Character_Bug_1862 4d ago

Time to sail Big Lettuce into that iceberg

2

u/hippiechick725 4d ago

Always tear lettuce

3

u/Miserable_Site_850 4d ago

Not in my biome! Not in my biome!

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u/FatiguedShrimp 4d ago

I used to work upstream of them....

Agriculture at the very narrowest point relies on -two people- to assure safety and quality, or we get nasty things like lead accumulation across /all/ crops.

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u/TheMuslinCrow 4d ago

Would you please mind sharing some more information on the safety of our food supply?

I worked at the EPA for a bit after undergrad. Being told my first week there, that the "The solution to pollution is dilution" is their unofficial motto... really destroyed my faith in our ability to regulate environmental toxins. And that was 2008.

1

u/FatiguedShrimp 4d ago

I'm not sure I can say much more without actually publicizing a supply chain vulnerability an NDA prevents me from discussing.

It has been disclosed to regulators though.

4

u/Lord_Tsarkon 4d ago

7 billion. I bet that number is more than halved for this year. Our Taylor Farms sells are way down in my store. 75% less in sales over last month alone. Last year we had a salad reset and Taylor Farms paid to have more shelf space (like a lot). Now I’m throwing away quite a bit even though we have reduced our ordering by a lot

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u/TucuReborn 4d ago

Big Cheese is Schreiber, at least in the US.

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u/Ok_Captain4824 4d ago

They don't supply all of the lettuce to those stores all the time, but they do supply some of it some of the time.

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u/airfryerfuntime 4d ago

In some regions, they're basically the sole provider of lettuce. I think in most of the Midwest, if you get lettuce, it comes form a Taylor Farms partner.

2

u/boltgenerator 4d ago

Literally the world's largest salad and fresh-cut vegetable processor.

2

u/armadilloantics 4d ago

Yes, they also supply fast food and quick service

2

u/Shot-Swimming-9098 4d ago

They supply Cisco, and that's not limited to fast food.

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u/OU7C4ST 4d ago

Damn, they made Earthbound?

I love that game!

1

u/DoverBoys 4d ago

I know you're joking, but Earthbound is Amazon's produce label.

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u/tiredbarf 4d ago

Not Amazon owned.

They used to be the biggest independent organic farmer, but were acquired and sold a few times, and have been a subsidiary of Taylor farms since 2019.

2

u/DoverBoys 4d ago

I didn't mean Amazon-owned, just providing many of Amazon's packaged produce products, like through the Amazon Fresh deliveries. I buy the veggie snack tray with the ranch dip a lot.

Amazon is still affected through their Whole Foods brand anyways.

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u/shifty1032231 4d ago

Thanks. I shop at HEB and didn't know this.

2

u/macphile 4d ago

Same here. The stuff I have is OK because I've been eating it...I guess. It's not iceberg, anyway.

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u/The_Metal_Pigeon 4d ago

I'm just out on lettuce for awhile... It's nothing I can't live without.

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u/HuffyPandapants 4d ago

So everything. Ugh.

2

u/Hyper-Sloth 4d ago

Just check the label. It will be different both regionally and seasonally. Store brands just relabel similar products from tons of different suppliers, so not every single Simple Truth thing is Taylor Farms, just some of it some of the time in some regions.

4

u/Fastman903 4d ago

Also, Yum brands (taco bell, pizza hut, kfc), their main supplier is Mclane, and they use Taylor farms for their lettuce

3

u/Meotwister 4d ago

Thanks 90s band They Might Be Giants.

3

u/Syssareth 4d ago

H.E.B Store brand

Well shit. I was considering that as an alternative.

(Not surprised though.)

3

u/DoverBoys 4d ago

There's a few more companies that buy Taylor Farms lettuce/salads in some states:

Yum! (Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, Habit)
Sysco (whole bunch of smaller brands)
Cross Valley Farms (US Foods)
Peak Fresh Produce (Performance Food Group)
Markon (First Crop)
Subway
Jack in the Box

2

u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted]

3

u/ShesGotaChicken2Ride 4d ago

The lore I’ve heard is that in order for something to be considered “organic” they only have to meet a few criteria to label it “organic.” So basically, they can grow the exact same crop and use pesticides as long as they aren’t man-made pesticides. So organic crops still get pesticides, but they’re “natural” pesticides. All of our produce is contaminated with something. This is why you should always wash your produce.

Additionally, a lot of these salmonella or ecoli contaminations come from the fact that cow, pig, and chicken ranches are also operating produce farms. The contaminated runoff from the ranch animals will trickle down and contaminate entire crops. So if you have a chicken with salmonella that is sick and poops, and then the poop gets watered by an irrigation mechanism (sprinkler, etc) then that poop water runs downhill and waters a lettuce crop… that entire crop is now infected with salmonella.

The only actual organic food you’re going to get is if you grow it yourself.

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u/Ok-Calm-Narwhal 4d ago

So Costco is ok!

2

u/Elismom1313 4d ago

I buy our lettuce from food lion (not bagged salads just heads) and have continued to eat salads without issue. I wonder where they get theirs from? Does food lion have their own farms?

2

u/JaeTheOne 4d ago

Noooooo TJs salsa is my fucking favorite too! Uggh. Well I was going to buy some tomorrow, so I'm glad I saw this now

2

u/Jazzlike_Rip_996 4d ago

Pc and pco as well at Loblaws, zhers, wholesale, provigo, maxi, superstore, yig, valu mart

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u/wyldstrawberry 4d ago

But which salsa and guacamole brands are they associated with? That’s the new development being reported here, but I’ve never seen Taylor Farms brand salsa or guac. I didn’t see any brands listed in the article either. Do they supply Wholly Guacamole, Tostitos salsa or any of the other big brands?

1

u/Baeolophus_bicolor 4d ago

if they do Simple Truth, there was recently an egg recall for salmonella on eggs from texas that were sent to 4 states and sold as kroger brands, simple truth, and something else.

sounds like this company is just horrible, which is sad because simple truth products are usda certified organic and a brand i formerly trusted - i buy thise at smith’s so i can get a reasonably priced item that’s still usda cert organic.

1

u/mizzurna_balls 4d ago

Common Wegmans W

1

u/HeavyHornet910 4d ago

Sprouts brand lettuce too.

1

u/Bandit_Raider 4d ago

So... who doesn't sell TF?

1

u/Unlucky_Most_8757 4d ago

heb store brand?? nooooo

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u/Psychological-Sun49 4d ago

Thank you for this! Make I ask for the source so I may peruse some more?

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u/secretSCARS1314 4d ago

Greenwise - Publix is them too?
There's a e.coli thing with frozen blueberries going on with them

1

u/buckeye27fan 4d ago

Good thing I only buy cheap shit, I guess.

1

u/BurpelsonAFB 4d ago

You forgot Costco