Four days after Taylor Farms executives reportedly met with White House and FDA officials, the lab result behind the company’s recall was reclassified as a mistake.
According to the New York Times, the company used that meeting to raise what a spokesperson described as “shortfalls in the FDA and CDC’s outbreak response process.” Taylor Farms issued its recall the very next day, tying central Mexico sourced iceberg lettuce to a cyclosporiasis outbreak that has spread across at least 34 states and sent more than 140 people to the hospital.
A lab sample tested positive for the parasite that Saturday. By Sunday, the FDA said the result was actually a “false positive.”
Taylor Farms pointed to that reversal in a statement posted on X, which was later deleted.
“Today, FDA apologized to us. Yesterday, FDA informed Taylor Fresh Foods that one of its iceberg lettuce products from central Mexico tested positive for cyclospora. Today, we were informed that FDA made a mistake, and this was a false positive. To be clear, at this moment, FDA has not identified a single positive product test result for Cyclospora.”
Taylor Farms: “Today, FDA apologized to us. … FDA made a mistake, and this” — positive result for cyclospora in its lettuce- “was a false positive.” pic.twitter.com/MxfSMXlDc6
— Jake Tapper 🦅 (@jaketapper) July 20, 2026
Stay up-to-date with the latest news!
Subscribe and start recieving our daily emails.
The FDA agreed the original test result was wrong, but said that did not change the broader investigation.
The agency said its “experts re-reviewed the sample results” and found the earlier positive “does not represent true amplification and should be considered a false positive.” It also stressed:
“To clarify, this false-positive lab sample DOES NOT change the basis for FDA’s ongoing outbreak investigation or the overwhelming epidemiological data supporting the current voluntary recall by Taylor Farms. FDA’s traceback investigation and outbreak data continue to converge on shredded iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms locations in central Mexico.”
To clarify, this false-positive lab sample DOES NOT change the basis for FDA’s ongoing outbreak investigation or the overwhelming epidemiological data supporting the current voluntary recall by Taylor Farms.
Over the weekend, FDA alerted Taylor Farms that a new sample of… https://t.co/hedRwhPLd8
— U.S. FDA (@US_FDA) July 20, 2026
The political connections also came into focus.
Federal campaign finance filings show Taylor Fresh Foods donated $1 million to Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC in March 2025, adding to years of contributions to Republican committees. Founder Bruce Taylor has also contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican Senate campaigns.
The New York Times has previously reported that several seven figure MAGA Inc. donors later received favorable treatment from the administration, including government appointments and pardons. The paper also noted that Taylor Farms recently hired Trent Morse, a former White House personnel official who left the administration last September.
HHS rejected any suggestion that politics played a role in the FDA’s decision.
The department posted on X:
“This is how the FAKE NEWS works: imply collusion, ignore the facts. Nothing influences our decisions except science and the safety of the American people.”
This is how the FAKE NEWS works: imply collusion, ignore the facts.
Nothing influences our decisions except science and the safety of the American people.https://t.co/RgOhyLHCh1 https://t.co/KHiZMiurVO
— HHS Rapid Response (@HHSResponse) July 20, 2026
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also defended the government’s handling of the outbreak during a Tuesday briefing.
“We have done extensive forensics, epidemiological forensics and we have identified the source of the outbreak. We, and the companies that are involved, have implemented a recall,” Kennedy said, adding that the outbreak is now “under control.”
The recall, however, remains in place.
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
