Can you identify Taylor Farms products by codes beginning with ‘TF’ printed on bags?

In mid-July 2026, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced they had found a source of an outbreak of cyclospora, a parasite that causes gastrointestinal illness, that reportedly began in May. While they first highlighted lettuce at Taco Bell locations in five midwestern states, the FDA soon turned its attention to lettuce grown in central Mexico by Taylor Farms, a large agricultural company that supplied the Taco Bell locations with their lettuce.

Taco Bell soon after said it removed the affected Taylor Farms lettuce from its restaurants. Taylor Farms recalled lettuce distributed across 27 states.

In light of the outbreak and online scrutiny over Taylor Farms’ history, some people on social media began sharing tips they said could be used to identify Taylor Farms products sold under different branding. For example, an X post (archived) advises readers to, “Look closely at the small inkjet-printed traceability or production code right next to the expiration/enjoy-by date. If the code begins with TF or TFRB, it indicates production by Taylor Farms.”

Another X user posted a photo (archived) showing the “TF” code on a salad bag she said made her sick. Reddit users advised others (archived) to look for “TF” at the beginning of codes on their salad packages to determine if they’re from Taylor Farms.

It’s true that the packaging of at least some salads and lettuce produced by Taylor Farms has the letters “TF” at the beginning of the code near the “Best By” date.

However, we don’t yet know if Taylor Farms is the only company that uses codes beginning “TF” for its products. We also haven’t been able to confirm whether Taylor Farms uses these codes on all of its products. As a result, we’ve refrained from rating the claim based on the available evidence.

Snopes has reached out to Taylor Farms, as well as two retailers that carry Taylor Farms products in their stores, Walmart and Kroger, by email to receive clarification on these unknowns.

Identifying Taylor Farms’ lot codes

Most of the products listed in Taylor Farms’ recall notice went to food service distributors that supply restaurants, hospitals, college campuses and other places outside of the home. Two of the products, however, were listed as retail, meaning consumers could buy them at stores. While the Taylor Farms recall notice only referred to the brand associated with these products as “MKTSD,” the FDA clarified that the recall included “Marketside-brand product available at Walmart.”

The recall included Marketside-branded iceberg salad and shredded iceberg lettuce. Pictures customers uploaded of the “Best if Used By” date on the bag as part of reviews of the products on Walmart’s website showed the codes on at least some of the salads and shredded lettuce began with “TF.” 

Versions of these products sold directly under the Taylor Farms brand on Amazon Fresh similarly included codes beginning with “TF,” based on pictures included in reviews of the product. 

Of the four pictures from customer reviews above, three of the salads sold between March and May 2026 read “TFRS,” followed by a string of numbers. The other picture showed a code beginning with “TFMX” on a shredded lettuce bag sold in 2023. Some lower quality images of the code within the iceberg salad reviews revealed at least two more products with the code “TFMX.” All three “TFMX” salads included the phrase “Product of Mexico,” suggesting “MX” likely referred to Mexico.

It’s worth noting, however, that not every Marketside product pictured in the reviews had a code beginning with “TF.” Some of these codes began with a single letter such as a “G,” or no letters at all. Considering Walmart recalled products in only some states, it’s possible that in some parts of the country the Marketside produce comes from a source other than Taylor Farms.

These codes are lot codes, which are meant to identify a group of products from the same place. They appear to have some features in common with examples of easily traceable lot codes the FDA shared in 2024, ahead of a new requirement to improve traceability.

In one example, the code begins with the company name and the product’s source location.

The unknowns of linking products to Taylor Farms based on lot codes

Clearly, at least some Taylor Farms products can be identifiable by a “TF” in their lot codes. Whether all of the company’s products contain “TF” in their lot codes is uncertain.

Some social media users suggested that Taylor Farms may lead lot codes on some products with other letters, such as “SY,” “CV” or “MARK.” 

These other letters appear to come from Taylor Farms’ recalled product list, which refers to brands by abbreviations instead of their full names — unusually, since most recall notices use full brand names to help customers clearly identify the recalled items. 

Among the brands is “TF,” which some may see as evidence that Taylor Farms is identifying the products by the letters in their lot codes. However, this assumption does not appear to be true.

Again, the only retail brand listed in Taylor Farms’ recall notice is MKTSD, which we know from above refers to the Marketside brand.

However, “MKTSD” was not in the lot code of any of the pictures Snopes sifted through in the reviews of the recalled Marketside products — instead, consumer images of those products showed they had lot codes beginning “TF,” a single letter or no letters at all. 

Further, among the brands listed in the recall notice is JB. That most likely refers to the fast food chain Jack in the Box, which on July 19 announced it was removing affected Taylor Farms lettuce from its restaurants. 

This pattern, plus analysis from food safety lawyer Bill Marler, suggests that these are likely abbreviations Taylor Farms uses internally, as opposed to codes consumers would find on packaging.

For further reading, Snopes has been fact-checking other claims related to the cyclospora outbreak and the Taylor Farms recall.