Between prices and a diarrhea-causing parasite, lettuce is causing hard
times at some restaurants
[July 30, 2026]
By DEE-ANN DURBIN
It’s been a choppy year for restaurants that lean into lettuce.
Lettuce prices rose sharply in the first half of 2026 due to hot weather
in Arizona, where about one-third of America’s lettuce is grown. Now,
restaurants are dealing with the fallout from a cyclospora outbreak
linked to shredded lettuce that has sickened thousands of Americans.
Taco Bell will likely see the biggest sales impact from the outbreak,
which began in late June. Federal health officials first tied the
outbreak to shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants in
Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia. Later, the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration said customers in Illinois, Kansas,
Oklahoma and Pennsylvania were also affected.
Taco Bell said on July 17 that it had voluntarily removed shredded
iceberg lettuce supplied by Taylor Farms from its U.S. restaurants. But
its customer volume has suffered. As of July 23, Taco Bell visits were
21% lower than average across the U.S., according to Placer.ai, a market
research company.
Cases have continued to grow, however, and it’s becoming clear that Taco
Bell wasn’t the outbreak's sole source, said Craig Hedberg, a food
safety researcher at the University of Minnesota. As the FDA
investigation progresses, officials should get a better understanding of
which illnesses are connected and “how complex this outbreak actually
has become.”
In the meantime, consumers remain cautious. Foot traffic at Chopt, a
salad-focused chain with 105 locations, was down 12% as of July 23,
according to Placer.ai. M Science, another market research firm, found
that weekly spending at the salad chain Sweetgreen dropped 10 percentage
points compared to last year during the first half of July.
Chopt didn't respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
Sweetgreen, which has 285 U.S. locations, did not confirm a drop in
sales and said in a statement that its food hasn’t been connected to the
current cyclospora outbreak.
“We follow rigorous food safety standards and can trace our ingredients
from restaurant to farm,” the company said.
The outbreak came on top of an already difficult year for the lettuce
industry and people who love eating salads. The retail price of a pound
of iceberg lettuce jumped nearly 20% between January and June of this
year, according to government data. Consumers paid an average of 33%
more last month for all fresh lettuce compared to a year earlier, the
U.S. Department of Agriculture said.
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Organic lettuce is displayed in Falls Church, Va., Saturday, March
11, 2017. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
 Lettuce prices advertised by major
grocery stores last week averaged $1.86 for a head of iceberg, 25
cents more than the same week a year earlier, according to the USDA.
A head of red leaf lettuce cost 52 cents more at $1.66, and a bunch
of romaine had an advertised price of $2.49 — $1.55 higher, the
department reported.
Shoppers caught a break with some types of salad mixes, though,
which stores advertised at prices 7 to 24 cents cheaper than a year
prior, the USDA said.
Elizabeth Canales, an associate professor of agricultural economics
at Mississippi State University, said unusually hot weather in
Arizona early in the year caused crops to mature too early. That
caused big supply gaps until California production began in late
April.
Fuel costs, which increased after the U.S. and Israel launched
strikes on Iran and Iran blocked most oil tankers from leaving the
Persian Gulf, have also been an issue, according to Canales. Lettuce
is especially perishable and requires energy for cooling from the
time it's picked to the time it's sold, Canales said.
“The cold chain needs to be maintained. Cooling and transporting it
is very important,” Canales said.
Lettuce has been linked to multiple food poisoning outbreaks in the
past, including two in 2018 involving E. coli linked to romaine
lettuce grown in Arizona and California.
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Associated Press Writer Mike Stobbe contributed from New York.
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