Taco Bell lettuce outbreak sickens thousands across US Midwest

A microscopic parasite traveling through shredded iceberg lettuce has sickened thousands across the American Midwest, reminding us how fragile the invisible threads of a modern food supply chain can be. Federal health authorities have linked at least 1,644 confirmed cases of cyclosporiasis — and potentially thousands more — to Taco Bell restaurants across five states, in what may be the largest outbreak of its kind ever recorded in the United States. The contamination traces back to a single farm in central Mexico, yet its reach extended across an entire region, carried by something as unremar