{"id":553080,"date":"2026-07-31T13:40:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T13:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/553080\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T13:40:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T13:40:16","slug":"prices-and-diarrhoea-causing-parasites-its-been-a-choppy-year-for-us-lettuce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/553080\/","title":{"rendered":"Prices and diarrhoea-causing parasites: It’s been a choppy year for US lettuce"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a choppy year for restaurants that lean into lettuce.<\/p>\n

Lettuce prices rose sharply in the first half of 2026 due to hot weather in Arizona, where about one-third of America\u2019s lettuce is grown. Now, restaurants are dealing with the fallout from a cyclospora outbreak linked to shredded lettuce<\/a> that has sickened thousands of Americans.<\/p>\n

Yum Brands, the parent company of Taco Bell, said Thursday that Taco Bell’s US same-store sales are down 2% so far in the July-September period due to customers’ concerns over the outbreak. That compares to a 7% same-store sales increase in the April-June period.<\/p>\n

Federal health officials first tied the diarrhoea-causing outbreak to shredded iceberg lettuce<\/a> served at Taco Bell restaurants in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia. Later, the US Food and Drug Administration said customers in Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania were also affected.<\/p>\n

Taco Bell removed shredded iceberg lettuce supplied by Taylor Farms from its US restaurants on July 17. The following day, Taylor Farms recalled iceberg lettuce grown in central Mexico.<\/p>\n

Taco Bell’s sales bottomed out the weekend of July 18-19 but have been steadily improving since then, Yum Brands Chief Financial Officer Ranjith Roy said Thursday in a conference call with investors. Over the last four days, Taco Bell’s US sales have climbed halfway back to their year-ago level, he said.<\/p>\n

Yum Brands CEO Chris Turner said Taco Bell’s quick action to contain the issue and its clear communication on social media helped bring diners back. The brand also enticed fans with daily specials like $1 Mexican pizza.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith respect to the consumer sentiment, we\u2019ve seen real improvement as consumers have understood better the nature of the issue,\u201d Turner said. \u201cThey understand that it is not a Taco Bell-specific issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Consumers<\/p>\n

Consumers have been warned against ordering products that include shredded lettuce. (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n

Yum Brands shares rose 3.3% Thursday.<\/p>\n

Other chains are also feeling some impact from the outbreak even though they haven’t been named in government investigations. Chipotle Mexican Grill said that it expects its same-store sales to rise only 1% in the July-September period because of lower traffic due to the outbreak. It had previously expected same-store sales to rise 3% in that period.<\/p>\n

Foot traffic at Chopt, a salad-focused chain with 105 locations, plunged 24% on July 18 compared to the normal average for a Saturday, according to Placer.ai, a market research company. 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.<\/p>\n

Chopt didn’t respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. Sweetgreen, which has 285 US locations, did not confirm a drop in sales and said in a statement that its food hasn\u2019t been connected to the current cyclospora outbreak.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe follow rigorous food safety standards and can trace our ingredients from restaurant to farm,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n

\"Cyclospora<\/p>\n

Cyclospora affects the bowels, often contracted through feces-contaminated products. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Cyclospora cases have continued to grow<\/a>. As of July 27, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it has received reports of 6707 laboratory-confirmed cases. It’s investigating multiple clusters, including a new outbreak involving 72 people that was announced last week. As the FDA investigation progresses, officials should get a better understanding of which illnesses are connected and \u201chow complex this outbreak actually has become”, said Craig Hedberg, a food safety researcher at the University of Minnesota.<\/p>\n

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 US Department of Agriculture said.<\/p>\n

Lettuce prices advertised by major grocery stores last week averaged US$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 US$1.66, and a bunch of romaine had an advertised price of US$2.49, which was US$1.55 higher, the department reported.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Fuel costs, which increased after the US 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cold chain needs to be maintained. Cooling and transporting it is very important,\u201d Canales said.<\/p>\n

Lettuce has been linked to multiple food poisoning outbreaks in the past, including two in 2018<\/a> involving E. coli linked to romaine lettuce grown in Arizona and California.<\/p>\n

The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including a triumphant welcome for Spain\u2019s footballers, and a 1 in 15 million birth in Australia. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been a choppy year for restaurants that lean into lettuce. Lettuce prices rose sharply in the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,144,134,111,139,64,69],"class_list":["post-553080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-food-drink","tag-health","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-north-america","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}