No, You Shouldn’t Avoid Fruits and Vegetables Due to Cyclospora
CR’s experts explain what you need to know about the infections occurring across the country and how to really protect yourself from getting sick
The word on everyone’s lips this summer is cyclospora. The microscopic parasite, best known for causing bouts of “explosive” diarrhea, has sickened at least 6,000 people in the U.S. so far this year, and generated a spate of panic-inducing headlines that have caused some consumers to eye the entire produce aisle with suspicion.
However, food safety experts say that is not the right approach. “You can and should continue to eat fruits and vegetables,” says James E. Rogers, PhD, director of food safety at CR. “Depending on where in the country you are located, and what your risk factors are, you might want to take additional basic precautions—like choosing a whole head of lettuce over a prechopped bag of salad, or opting for cooked greens over raw—but currently, there is no data to support avoiding fruits and vegetables generally.”
It’s important to put the current outbreak into context, as the case pattern is somewhat unusual, Rogers says. The U.S. traditionally experiences a surge in cyclospora infections during the summer months. The parasite can be found in food and water contaminated with human feces, and infections are more likely to occur in warm or rainy weather.
By this time last year, at least 44 states had reported cases of cyclosporiasis, the disease caused by the cyclospora parasite, to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On Tuesday, CDC officials said that although cases have only been detected in at least 34 states so far this year, the total number of illnesses reported is already “much, much higher than what we’ve seen last year or the year before.”
What’s Going On?
The CDC said Tuesday that it had identified 1,645 lab-confirmed cases of cyclosporiasis and was working to confirm an additional 5,100 reports that had occurred since May. (For comparison, there were about 2,800 cases, on average, reported annually in the U.S. between 2016 and 2023.) “The true number of infections is almost certainly higher than what’s reflected in these numbers, because many people with mild illness recover without seeking medical care and are never tested,” Gwen Biggerstaff, MPH, deputy director of the CDC’s Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases, said at a press conference Tuesday.
So far, the recent spike in total cases seems to be largely propelled by surging infection numbers in a small handful of states. The CDC has identified a large cluster of illnesses in Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky that, based on genetic testing, appear to share a common source, although the agency has not determined which food is involved. As of Tuesday, in Michigan alone, health officials reported more than 3,300 cases—65 times more cases than the state saw in all of 2025. Forty-four people in Michigan were hospitalized.
How Worried Should You Be?
How concerned you should be about the risk of contracting cyclosporiasis may depend on where you live. Although headlines may lead you to believe that the entire country is awash with illnesses, a look at the numbers shows that’s not the case.
What Foods Are Responsible?
It’s not clear. The CDC and the Food and Drug Administration, which is also investigating the outbreak, say the source is unknown, and it’s possible that different foods may be making people sick, depending on location.
However, in Michigan, early signals from a preliminary investigation are pointing toward “lettuce and salad greens” as a potential culprit, said Natasha Bagdasarian, MD, MPH, the state’s chief medical officer. But Michigan officials also said that other foods have not been ruled out.
The officials identified lettuce and salad greens as a possible source on Monday after reviewing data from over a thousand food history questionnaires completed by residents who tested positive for the parasitic infection, Bagdasarian told CR. Investigators reviewed grocery lists and shopping card histories to understand what produce people purchased in the weeks before they became symptomatic. They also cataloged the relevant ingredients from menu items at the restaurants and fast food chains people visited.
“Out of a thousand cases, we are clearly seeing a signal around lettuce,” said Bagdasarian, who noted that the exact type of leafy green is “difficult to pinpoint” at this time, partially due to software limitations and the comparatively limited funds provided to state foodborne illness surveillance programs. “We have very antiquated data systems in public health that desperately need to be modernized. So this is a very, very manual review.”
Previous cyclosporiasis outbreaks have been linked to contaminated raspberries, fresh imported herbs like basil and cilantro, bagged salad mixes, and romaine lettuce. A 2020 analysis of over three dozen major outbreaks associated with fresh produce consumption found that 65 percent were caused by contaminated basil or raspberries. “Basil has been implicated in many cyclosporiasis outbreaks that have occurred mainly in the USA and Canada, while Guatemalan raspberries have also been indicated as the causative agent of many reported outbreaks,” wrote the study authors in a publication in the scientific journal Foods. “In addition, contaminated cilantro and lettuce have caused a significant number of cyclosporiasis infections worldwide.”
What Steps Should You Take to Protect Against Cyclospora?
Federal officials say they are not advising people to avoid any particular food at this point, and cautioned that an official source of the outbreak has not been identified yet. However, depending on where you live and your risk factors, you might want to take certain precautions with some types of fresh produce.
Generally speaking, following basic food safety rules can go a long way toward protecting you. The CDC and FDA recommend that everyone wash their hands with soap and water before and after preparing raw fruits and vegetables. You should also wash fruits and vegetables (even those labeled as prewashed) thoroughly under running water before eating, and scrub firmer foods, like melons and cucumbers, with a clean produce brush. Do this before you slice into the food to avoid transferring any outside contaminants to the inside flesh.
“It is important to wash fresh produce, and so I think that’s been shown to be very helpful in lowering the risk of this parasite,” Donald Prater, the FDA’s acting deputy commissioner for food, said in Tuesday’s press conference.
It’s worth noting that cyclospora appears to be more difficult to remove from some foods than other parasites. A small-scale study published in 2021 compared the efficacy of three washing methods in removing parasites from raspberries and blueberries. While rinsing raspberries in a strainer under a gentle stream of cold tap water for 1 minute was enough to remove, on average, at least 80 percent of the other two parasites studied, the removal rate for cyclospora ranged from 11 to 69 percent, according to the study. Washing the raspberries with a mixture of vinegar and tap water offered some improvement, but still left a notable amount of the parasite present on the fruit. The most effective method involved washing the berries before rinsing them in a salad spinner, but even this failed to remove all of the parasite.
Still, says CR’s Rogers, removing some cyclospora from a contaminated item can be beneficial. It can reduce the risk of getting sick or result in less severe illness if you do.
What About People in Affected Areas?
CR’s food safety experts recommend that people in the states where cyclosporiasis has been detected wash their hands and foods the best they can, and avoid prechopped raw fruits and vegetables. “Stay away from the prechopped, prebagged, and all the rest of that,” said Rogers. “Instead, buy them whole and chop them yourself while practicing good sanitary hygiene in your kitchen.”
For those living in Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky, Rogers suggests avoiding eating lettuce and other salad greens until more information is available about the source of the outbreak, given the preliminary findings in Michigan and the historical link between cyclospora infections and prepackaged leafy greens. “If I was in Michigan, I would personally avoid eating lettuce until more information became available,” he says.
People in affected areas who are immunocompromised or are more susceptible to severe illness from foodborne contaminants, such as young kids and older adults, might want to take additional precautions, like eating their fruits and veggies cooked. Heating food to 158° F kills the cyclospora parasite. “I’m advising my friends and family with compromised immune systems to avoid uncooked vegetables for the time being, but I tend to err on the side of caution,” Rogers says.
