This summer, Naomi Norman has been roasting, grilling, or sautéing her vegetables. The Rye resident no longer buys bagged lettuce, and she’s not alone.
Julissa Ochoa, assistant store manager of DeCicco and Sons in Harrison, said that in the face of the national outbreak of cyclosporiasis Westchester shoppers are being cautious.
“Everybody’s scared, so we’re really not selling as much lettuce as we did before, especially bagged lettuce,” she said. “We are selling some, but not the same amount.”
“If I want lettuce, I buy from the farmer’s market and wash carefully,” said Norman. “Also, my husband and I no longer order salads when we eat out.”
Across the nation, a record number of cases of cyclosporiasis, a gastrointestinal disease caused by cyclospora parasites on produce, has been linked to lettuce from Taylor Foods, Taco Bell, and Walmart’s Marketside brand. (All of these brands have been voluntarily recalled.)
The Centers for Disease Control reported 13,895 cases nationally and 740 hospitalizations as of Aug. 11, the latest date available. (For comparison, the CDC reported 1,180 cases of the food-borne illness between May 1 and Aug. 31, 2025.)
Forty-seven states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have reported cases. Michigan reported two deaths tied to the outbreak, but both of those people had significant health conditions.
So far, Westchester County and the state of New York have been spared. While there have been 62 cases this year of cyclosporiasis in the county, Christopher Ericson, the Westchester Board of Health’s deputy commissioner of Environmental Health, said none have been linked to the national outbreak.
“The data for the cases we have received is not showing a commonality between those cases that would point to one specific source,” said Ericson. In fact, at the same time last year there were 90 cases, so the percentage has gone down this year.
That doesn’t mean Westchester officials are not watching the rest of the country.
“We are monitoring the situation,” Ericson said. “We continue to keep in touch with state health department agencies and watch what the CDC is saying.”
In the meantime, he recommends protecting yourself and your family by taking the following steps:
- Wash your hands, cutting boards and utensils thoroughly before and after handling produce;
- Boil or wash produce, scrubbing it where possible;
- Peel produce such as apples and pears and then wash fruit again;
- Tear off and throw away the first few leaves of lettuce and wash the remainder;
- Wash such produce as melons and raspberries. Parasites can hide in the crevices;
- Wash even lettuce that says it is pre-washed;
- Avoid bagged lettuce;
- Buy at local farmstands.
You can also get creative, making salads without lettuce.
Norman enjoys a watermelon, cucumber, and feta salad. Several local restaurants also list interesting lettuce-free salads: Aurora has a watermelon and peach salad, and Ruby’s Oyster Bar offers a beet and orange salad. Ora lists a tomato and mozzarella salad, and The Rye Country Store has a fruit salad.
Most people who develop this food-borne disease get better on their own. But some may require antibiotics to recover. The Centers for Disease Control recommends you call your doctor if you have these symptoms:
- Loose diarrhea
- Lack of appetite
- Bloating
- Weight loss
- Gas
- Nausea
- Fatigue
Less commonly, you may also experience:
- Vomiting
- Body aches
- Headache
- Low-grade fever
- Other flu-like symptoms.
