Taylor Farms, founded in 1995, has become integral to America’s food supply system through a combination of aggressive expansion and strategic acquisitions. The company generates roughly $7.3 billion in annual sales and supplies products to major retailers including Walmart, Kroger, Whole Foods and Target, as well as restaurant chains such as McDonald’s, Taco Bell and Chipotle. The company controls approximately 40% of salad kits sold at grocery stores, giving it substantial influence over the availability and pricing of convenient vegetable options for American consumers.
Recent attention to Taylor Farms has intensified due to a cyclospora outbreak linked to iceberg lettuce processed at the company’s facility in central Mexico. The FDA has connected the parasite’s spread to the company’s products, some of which were served at Taco Bell restaurants. In response, Taylor Farms has voluntarily suspended iceberg lettuce sourcing and production from central Mexico and commissioned independent experts to review food safety practices at the facility. The company maintains that it spends more than $200 million annually on food safety measures.
Taylor Farms operates across much of the food supply chain, handling processing, packaging, and distribution of produce sourced from hundreds of family farms. The company performs multiple functions including washing, chopping, packaging, labeling, shipping and refrigeration. This vertical integration has made it indispensable to major restaurant chains seeking reliable supply on a nationwide scale, as industry experts note that chains prefer dealing with large multinational suppliers rather than coordinating with local farmers.
The company has grown through more than a dozen acquisitions and investments since 2011, including the purchase of Earthbound Farm in 2019 and agricultural robotics company Farmwise in 2025. While consolidation has provided benefits in terms of consistent supply and standardized products, critics argue it has obscured sourcing origins and created systemic risk. Food safety experts have characterized the current situation as problematic, noting that when a company distributing to so many businesses becomes the center of a foodborne illness outbreak, effects cascade throughout the entire downstream food chain. This is not Taylor Farms’ first outbreak association; the company has been linked to a 2009 salmonella outbreak and a 2024 E. coli incident.
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