Cyclospora outbreak: Restaurants seeing slump in sales after removing lettuce from menus
FILE-Romaine lettuce is displayed on a shelf at a supermarket in San Rafael, California. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Restaurants are enduring the ripple effect of a cyclospora outbreak connected to shredded lettuce that has sickened thousands of people in the United States.
The Associated Press reported that federal health officials first linked the cyclospora outbreak to shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia.
Restaurant sales declining amid cyclospora outbreak
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Taco Bell is projected to see the largest sales impact from the outbreak, which started in late June.
Later, the Food and Drug Administration said customers in Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania were also impacted.
RELATED: Taylor Farms recall: States where lettuce pulled over Cyclospora fears
On July 17, Taco Bell announced that it had voluntarily removed shredded iceberg lettuce supplied by Taylor Farms from restaurants nationwide. However, its consumer volume has suffered.
And nearly a week later on July 23, Taco Bell experienced a dip in customer traffic at 21%, which is lower than average across the U.S., the AP noted, referencing data from Placer.ai, a market research organization.
RELATED: Why the US cyclospora outbreak is difficult to trace
Separately, consumer traffic at Chopt, a salad-focused chain with 105 locations, declined 12% as of July 23, according to Placer.ai.
M Science, another market research company, determined that weekly spending at the salad chain Sweetgreen fell 10 percentage points compared to 2025 during the first half of July, the AP reported.
Sweetgreen, which has 285 locations in the U.S., said in a statement obtained by the AP that its food hasn’t been linked to the current cyclospora outbreak.
What are current lettuce prices?
Big picture view:
Lettuce prices marketed by major grocery stores last week averaged $1.86 for a head of iceberg, 25 cents more than the same week in 2025, The Associated Press reported, citing U.S. Department of Agriculture data.
A head of red leaf lettuce cost 52 cents more at $1.66, and a bunch of romaine had a marketed price of $2.49 — $1.55 higher, the USDA reported.
The Source: Information for this story was provided by The Associated Press, which cites data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Placer.ai., and M Science. This story was reported from Washington, D.C.