Taylor Farms, which has been facing heightened scrutiny following multiple food safety incidents amid cyclospora and salmonella outbreaks, has now been linked to US President Donald Trump.
, in a letter to US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, claimed Taylor Farms’ parent company “has donated millions to political organizations with ties to President Trump.”
Political contributions and ‘influence-peddling’
In the sent to Kennedy on Thursday, Warren questioned whether the “botched response” to the outbreak “may be the result of incompetence and corruption” linked to donations and direct lobbying by the produce giant implicated in the outbreak.
“(P)olitical contributions and direct White House lobbying from Taylor Farms (or Taylor Fresh Foods, Inc, its parent company), the company implicated in the outbreak, raise urgent questions about the role this influence-peddling may have played in loosening federal food safety oversight and hampering the federal government’s response to the outbreak,” wrote Senator Warren.
Warren claimed that , Inc. has donated millions to political organisations aligned with the President, including more than $1 million directly to Inc., and “has hired a former Trump White House official to lobby on its behalf.”
She alleged that these investments appear to be closely timed to favorable regulatory actions — decisions that were good for Taylor Farms, but appear to have increased the risk of food safety problems like the ongoing cyclosporiasis outbreak.
Trump’s link
Warren claimed that on March 20, 2025, with the support of large food producers, the Trump administration delayed an FDA food traceability rule “that would have prevented more Americans from getting sick from food-borne disease outbreaks like this.”
“The rule set standard processes for reporting high-risk foods and would have likely aided disease investigators to more quickly trace produce contaminated with Cyclospora,” she added.
Warren further alleged that less than a week after the FDA rollback, public filings revealed that Taylor Fresh Food, Inc. made a $1 million donation to MAGA, Inc., President Trump’s SuperPAC.
“A few months later on June 13, 2025, Taylor Fresh Food, Inc. contributed another $100,000 to a Trump-aligned PAC with the same Treasurer as MAGA Inc. Just a few weeks later, on July 1, 2025, the Trump administration announced that it would end the mandatory reporting of cyclospora along with five other food-borne pathogens, to the CDC’s Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet), hampering the agency’s ability to monitor dangerous foodborne infectious illnesses,” she wrote in the letter.
Trump administration’s ‘myriad missteps’
She criticised the administration’s communication about the source of the outbreak, noting that Taco Bell provided earlier and seemingly clearer guidance to consumers than federal health and food safety agencies.
“The federal government’s communications regarding the outbreak, including information about its cause, have been confusing, inconsistent, and incomplete,” Warren wrote in the letter.
The senator requested that Kennedy answer questions by Aug. 27 on protocols for testing for false positives and to provide communications between health agencies and Taylor Farms.
She wrote in the letter, “On July 18, the FDA reported that lettuce from Taylor Farms tested positive for cyclospora.19 A day later, the FDA noted that the test was a false positive, yet the agency nevertheless affirmed that there is “overwhelming epidemiological data” that lettuce from Taylor Farms de Mexico was associated with the current outbreak. Taylor Farms claimed that the FDA had ‘apologized’ for the false positive test results, but the FDA denied the claim and the company subsequently removed it from its social media site.”
“This sequence of events reveals the Trump administration’s “myriad missteps” in responding to the largest cyclospora outbreak in US history. Taylor Farms’ attempts to influence the government’s public health response are equally alarming and raise questions about whether the government’s public health decisions may have been influenced by corporate interests,” she added.
Cyclosporiasis outbreak
The statement came as a multistate outbreak of cyclosporiasis impacted thousands of lives in differemt parts of the US. According to Reuters, Michigan, the hardest-hit state, on Thursday reported 13,909 cases linked to the parasitic disease, up roughly 11% over last week, but state officials said the rise largely reflected a processing backlog and the worst may be over.
The cyclosporiasis outbreak, one of the largest foodborne illness events in recent U.S. history and linked to iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms, has spread to 17 states and hit Michigan the hardest.
On July 18, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that a sample of shredded iceberg lettuce supplied by Taylor Farms tested positive for a parasitic illness that has sickened thousands of people in the US. The agency, however, withdrew the finding a day later after a laboratory review determined the result was a false positive.
The FDA investigations still point clearly to Taylor Farms, which recalled its lettuce from central Mexico and shut down its processing plant there. The recall included Marketside-branded product from Walmart and dozens of products distributed through Sysco and other companies, according to the FDA.
Taylor Farms said in a July 24 statement that the recall was voluntary and that it has “best-in-class” cyclospora prevention protocols. It is no longer sourcing any iceberg lettuce from the region, it said.
Acting US FDA Commissioner Kyle Diamantas said this week that the FDA remains confident that all iceberg lettuce related to the cyclospora outbreak has been effectively removed from the market as of the July 17th recall.
