WSJ: Taylor Farms lobbied White House to delay cyclospora recall

foodJul 26, 2026384,039

The Wall Street Journal reports representatives for Taylor Farms called the White House asking officials to delay announcing a recall tied to a major cyclospora outbreak and to give the company more proof and time before being publicly linked. Health officials had been scrambling to contain the parasite outbreak, which can cause explosive diarrhea. According to WSJ reporting, FDA investigators produced findings that convinced government officials; those officials ultimately cleared the FDA to make the findings public. The outreach illustrates how one of the country’s largest produce suppliers sought to limit exposure while managing a costly, complex recall. Some current and former government officials criticized both the administration’s response and Taylor Farms’ handling of the situation. Bruce Taylor, founder of Taylor Farms, spoke publicly about the FDA investigation for the first time in coverage accompanying the reporting.

Phil Lewis

@phillewis.bsky.social

Representatives for Taylor Farms called the White House to try to delay a recall tied to one of the largest foodborne illness outbreaks in U.S. history www.wsj.com/health/taylo...

Representatives for produce giant Taylor Farms contacted the White House with an urgent plea: the company wanted to delay announcing a recall tied to one of the largest foodborne illness outbreaks in U.S. history.
The call, during which the company asked for more proof and more time before being linked to the outbreak, illustrates how one of the country’s largest produce suppliers sought to limit its exposure to a public-relations nightmare, while grappling with a costly and complicated recall. Over the past several weeks, health officials have been scrambling to contain the outbreak of cyclospora, which can cause explosive diarrhea. Some current and former government officials have criticized the handling of the outbreak, both by the administration and Taylor Farms.

3472Yesterday

Cacao Byproduct110

Honestly that’s terrible PR If I were a competitor I’d just keep pointing to this forever

Mike Bloom69

Trump cares more about his billionaire donor friends making money than he does the about the health of millions of Americans. He'd rather us all die if he can make a few extra thousand bucks

wozvillenation.bsky.social43

Taylor Farms needs to be sued into bankruptcy.

Searingly Aaron31

Stating the obvious: Trump & the GOP give no 💩s about the regular people of the US. Pay to play. And apparently our taxes don’t count

Michael Planey30

Welcome to The Gilded Age 2: Electric Boogaloo

erinkelleyaz.bsky.social27

The GOP was suing to end the ACA all through Covid. The GOP supports gun trafficking and protected the Sacklers. The GOP are the thugs they campaign against. They fund the gangs. They fund instability.

Quoting this

ElleO 🇺🇸🇺🇦🇨🇦🇲🇽64

Apparently Taylor Farms didn't grease the palms of the trump regime enough to delay the lettuce recall. They shouldn't have been able to appeal to the president at all. #TrumpsSwamp #ProudBlue #Voices4Victory

Schmutzie.24

Nice. Taylor Farms wanted *more* people to contract days or weeks of explosive diarrhea.

WhinterQueen18

so until this report we knew that taylor farms reps visited the white house but we didn’t know the specifics. we also knew that TF maxed out donations to republicans/maga pacs (often in correlation with asking for a favor). but asking for a favor *now* was just assumed (correctly, we now now)

Robin Bradford13

I hope no one buys any of their shit ever again

estarianne7

Wow. The walkback was an op.

SirFox6

Remember this every time some libertarian tells you that the market will regulate itself and there is no need for governmental regulation on silly frivolous things like… Food safety. There's not many of them left but they're still very annoying.

Shower Cat6

This is not supposed to be a literal description of US politics but 🤷🏻‍♀️

Daniel Carroll6

It’s hard to imagine that in the early 90s there was like, an E. coli outbreak that almost took down Jack in the Box, or so it seemed.

James Mac, CEO of ANTIFA™️4

Boycott Taylor farms. Buy local.

Basil They/Them/Fuck Fascists4

I know it's a privilege, but I have been eating farmer's market lettuce and greens for the last week and like...I probably will never eat fast food or grocery store lettuce in the US ever again. It's just not safe. This is a hell country.

Sarah Taber

@sarahtaber.bsky.social

Did another stream this morning, talking about why Taylor Farms is lashing out at everyone & everything right now. This one is less "let's catch up on current events," & more How The Food Safety Sausage Actually Gets Made. youtube.com/live/r2KK_-j...

1134h ago

Matthew Cortland (they)

@matthewcort.land

At 2AM on July 23, subscribers to patreon.com/mattbc got my updated food safety guidance --- "I would also not eat raw herbs" --- in their inbox. There's a free tier that gets you basically everything, I'm not going to paywall the best safety guidance I have at a time like this Today's headline:

FDA reports new cyclospora outbreak at North Carolina eyes cilantro, parsley

75Yesterday

Ian Weissman, DO

@drianweissman.bsky.social

Federal health officials on Friday expanded the scope of their investigation into an outbreak of a diarrhea-causing parasite to four additional states, broadening the size of the largest U.S. outbreak of cyclospora. apnews.com/article/cycl...

30Yesterday

sara m. b. simon

@sarambsimon.bsky.social

is there a deep dive yet explaining how taylor farms became so big? it seems like their lettuce is everywhere

325h ago

Clay2

I found out the boxed greens I get which are greenhouse-grown in Indiana is actually a brand owned by Taylor.

Ron Sparks

@ronsparks.ca

Yes the cyclospora outbreak is a disaster - but you have to remember, by firing dozens of inspectors and shutting down labs and testing equipment, Elon Musk and DOGE were able to save... [checks notes]... okay wtf they cost taxpayers billions.

27Yesterday

Lauren Ashley Davis

@laurenmeidasa.bsky.social

‘Not standard’ for Taylor Farms to ask White House to delay cyclospora recall, ex-FDA head says Scott Gottlieb responds to report that company contacted the White House seeking to delay a recall announcement www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

183h ago

Social Media Lab

@socialmedialab.ca

"Taylor Farms Produce Is Sold Everywhere, Making Outbreak Difficult to Escape" www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

215h ago

Social Media Lab11

Monopoly runs amok. "Just four companies control 54% of the U.S. fresh-cut salad market, leaving much of the country’s supply in the hands of a small number of national companies." farmaction.us/if-it-isnt-t...

MPWERED

@kelvin1.bsky.social

Taylor Farms doesn't give a shit about food safety as evidenced by this case and previous history of cases. Don't buy their products.

192h ago

Loam1

Tell the MAGA/Trump/GOP-supporting CEO of Taylor to "eat shit". BOYCOTT.

twistmeyer.bsky.social1

Food safety is a budget item, not their mission.

Quoting this

collburns.bsky.social4

Well then, Let’s bankrupt them then! Power of the People

Paul Lander

@paullander.bsky.social

The cyclospora outbreak has reached 7,400 cases across 9 states. MAHA = Make America Heave Again.

16Yesterday

jentrification

@jentrification.com

the general public doesn't read the WSJ, they read Facebook posts. and the last thing they heard was "not Taylor Farms." this is gross negligence.

16Yesterday

public health guy

@publichealthguy1.bsky.social

trump suggested retaliatory tariffs today, although these off the cuff responses don’t often materialize into policy. it also wouldn’t surprise me if taylor farms paid and told them both exactly what to say in order to deflect the blame onto the mexican government.

21Yesterday

Caroleeena

@caroleeena.bsky.social

A lobbying group for Taylor Farms successfully pushed Trump to delay a rule that would have helped quickly trace contaminations to specific locations – which would have helped prevent this parasite from spreading to thousands of cases nationwide. www.joemygod.com/2026/07/wsj-...

94h ago

Matato'a Brian 🗿🗿🗿1

In what can only be described in ironic terms, Mexico has issued a travel warning for its residents visiting the US. youtu.be/wQekn0BoZew?...

Grace Garcia1

And one week after the rule was delayed, Taylor made a $1 million bribe, ahem, "donation" to his maga PAC.

r0ned2.bsky.social1

Who said just throwing money at problem doesn’t solve problems. Taylor Farms threw money at TFG and it solved their problem.

J. Nathan Matias

@natematias.bsky.social

Over a decade ago, I argued in The Atlantic & The Guardian that we learn from public health & toxicology to use science as a fair tool to merge safety & innovation. At the time, I foolishly thought there was agreement on the importance of product safety. Sigh. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

122h ago

TheCatMan

@bigbrohem.bsky.social

"I can’t believe this is real, but we need to talk about what’s happening with this food safety crisis because it is getting completely out of hand." From only 3 days ago. The # of reported cyclospora cases has DOUBLED since Adam made this post. RE: Taylor Farms lettuce. The bribe. The outbreak.

93h ago

3 sources

wsj.comTaylor Farms Called White House to Try to Delay Cyclospora Recall bloomberg.comTaylor Farms Produce Is Sold Everywhere, Making Outbreak Difficult to Escape forbes.comMeet The Tycoon Whose Taylor Farms Has Been Linked To “Explosive Diarrhea” Parasite Outbreak

WSJ: Taylor Farms lobbied White House to delay cyclospora recallfood

WSJ: Taylor Farms lobbied White House to delay cyclospora recall

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