Taylor Farms (NYSE: WMT) is pulling more than a dozen prepared food items containing jalapeño peppers, including salsas and guacamole, from store shelves across the United States over salmonella concerns.
The Salinas, California-based produce company announced Sunday it has issued a voluntary recall of products linked to an earlier recall by Coast Citrus Distributors, a unit of GrubMarket Inc.
Taylor Farms said it was “no longer” sourcing jalapeños from a farmer in Sinaloa, Mexico, identified as the potential source of the salmonella outbreak that prompted the initial action.
The recalled products were distributed to more than two dozen states, including Illinois, New York, and Texas, affecting a wide swath of American consumers.
Items subject to the recall range from diced peppers to containers of pineapple mango salsa, sold across multiple product lines under the Taylor Farms brand.
Major retailers carrying the affected products include Kroger Co., Target Corp., Trader Joe’s, Walmart Inc., and Amazon.com Inc.’s Whole Foods Market.
Taylor Farms stated it is currently unaware of any reported illnesses directly linked to the voluntarily recalled items.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week that hundreds of people had been sickened across 27 states by potentially contaminated jalapeños distributed by Coast Citrus, whose parent GrubMarket Inc. filed confidentially for a U.S. initial public offering last month.
The salmonella recall follows a separate and damaging episode last month, when federal health officials tied the largest recorded outbreak of cyclospora parasite cases to iceberg lettuce from Mexico supplied by Taylor Farms to companies including Yum! Brands Inc.’s Taco Bell.
Taylor Farms is considered a major force in the produce industry, operating a supply chain that spans several countries across North America and Europe, amplifying the reach of any contamination event.
Industry analysts have noted that consolidation in the produce sector broadens the food system’s vulnerability to outbreaks, since product grown in one region can be processed and distributed nationwide with speed.
Recalls carry a meaningful financial cost beyond direct operational disruption, as consumer confidence can erode for weeks or months after a contamination event is resolved.
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. and Qdoba Restaurant Corp. both said last week they pulled Coast Citrus jalapeños from hundreds of restaurant locations following the CDC’s public announcement on the salmonella risk.
Federal authorities are also separately investigating other clusters of illness potentially tied to additional sources, suggesting the scope of the current food safety investigation remains active and unresolved.
