It’s been a tumultuous year for salad-loving restaurants.
Lettuce prices rose sharply in the first half of 2026 due to warm weather in Arizona, where about a third of America’s lettuce is grown. Now, restaurants are dealing with the fallout cyclospora outbreak Linked to chopped lettuce that has sickened thousands of Americans.
Taco Bell Sales will likely see the biggest impact from the outbreak that began in late June. Federal health officials first linked the outbreak to shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia. Later, the US Food and Drug Administration said there were customers in Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania. also affected.
Taco Bell said on July 17 that it had voluntarily removed shredded iceberg lettuce supplied by Taylor Farm From his American restaurant. But its customer base has been affected. As of July 23, Taco Bell visits across the US were 21% below average, according to market research company Placer.ai.
However, cases continue to rise, and it is becoming clear that Taco Bell was not the sole source of the outbreaksaid Craig Hedberg, a food safety researcher at the University of Minnesota. In form of FDA investigation With progress, officials should have a better understanding of which diseases are linked and “how complex this outbreak really has become.”
Meanwhile, consumers be alert. Foot traffic at Chop’t, 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 salad chain Sweetgreen dropped 10 percentage points during the first half of July compared with last year.
Chopt did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. Sweetgreen, which has 285 U.S. locations, did not confirm the decline in sales and said in a statement that its food is not linked to the current Cyclospora outbreak.
“We adhere to rigorous food safety standards and can trace our ingredients from the restaurant to the farm,” the company said.
The outbreak came on top of an already difficult year for the salad industry and people who love to eat salads. The retail price of a pound of iceberg lettuce rose nearly 20% between January and June this year, according to government data. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said consumers paid an average of 33% more last month for all fresh lettuce than a year earlier.
According to the USDA, lettuce prices advertised by major grocery stores last week averaged $1.86 per iceberg, 25 cents higher than the same week a year ago. The department reported the price of a head of red leaf lettuce is 52 cents higher at $1.66, and the advertised price of a bunch of romaine is $2.49 – $1.55 higher.
However, shoppers caught a break with some types of salad mixes, which stores advertised at prices 7 to 24 cents cheaper than a year ago, the USDA said.
Elizabeth Canales, associate professor of agricultural economics at Mississippi State University, said unusually warm weather in Arizona at the beginning of the year caused crops to ripen too early. This created a large supply gap until production began in California in late April.
fuel costsWhich increased after the attack by America and Israel on iran Iran blocking most oil tankers from leaving the Persian Gulf has also been an issue, according to Canales. Canales said lettuce is particularly perishable and requires energy to cool it from picking to selling.
“The cold chain needs to be maintained. It’s very important to cool and transport it,” Canales said.
Lettuce has been linked to several food poisoning outbreaks in the past, including two E. coli outbreaks in 2018 linked to romaine lettuce grown. in arizona And California.
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Associated Press writer Mike Stobbe contributed from New York.
