Former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb stated on Sunday, July 26th, 2026, that it was “not standard operating procedure” for Taylor Farms to contact the White House seeking to delay a recall announcement related to a widespread cyclospora outbreak.

Speaking on CBS’s Face the Nation, Gottlieb responded to a Wall Street Journal report that Taylor Farms reached out to the White House while federal investigators were preparing to publicly link the company to the multi-state outbreak. Gottlieb noted that during his tenure at the FDA, such direct intervention requests were unusual. “I never heard from the White House on those things, other than to have discussions to inform them of what we were doing, so that they were properly briefed and could respond to questions that they were getting,” he said.

According to the Journal, Taylor Farms representatives requested more time before the government publicly associated the company with the outbreak. The White House then asked FDA officials to join a call where Taylor Farms argued that federal investigators lacked positive laboratory evidence connecting its products to the outbreak and expressed concerns that the government was overstating the company’s responsibility. The company sought the meeting after executives felt they had not received sufficient clarity from the FDA about the evidence supporting a potential recall and its scope.

However, a day after initial reports, the FDA removed a statement regarding a positive test and said the test was a false positive. Taylor Farms added that “at this moment, FDA has not identified a single positive product test result for Cyclospora.” The company later clarified that the recall remained in effect and that they were no longer sourcing iceberg lettuce from central Mexico for the current growing season.

Sources