Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declared the cyclosporiasis outbreak under control on Tuesday, even as the scale of the outbreak and a botched recall drew scrutiny. The illnesses first appeared in mid-May and have since spread to more than 40 states, with Michigan alone reporting 6,571 cases.
The FDA and CDC linked the outbreak to shredded iceberg lettuce from central Mexico supplied by Taylor Farms. The agency initially recalled the product on July 17 tied to Taco Bell, but announced a false positive two days later, complicating the response across 27 states. Taco Bell pulled shredded iceberg lettuce from its restaurants as a precaution.
The response has been hampered by surveillance gaps. FoodNet stopped mandatory reporting for cyclospora in 2025 after the Trump administration cut its monitored pathogens from eight to two.