Americans appear to be giving lettuce a side-eye, and the effect is showing up in restaurant foot-traffic data.
Placer.ai told WIRED it has only a few days of data, so treat the signal as early, not as a grand theory of lunch. Still, the company said visits to chains with lettuce-heavy menus began falling around July 10, as reports spread about a large cyclospora outbreak that may involve contaminated lettuce.
On July 11, Placer.ai data cited by WIRED showed traffic at Chop’t down 7.1 percent compared with the chain’s average Sunday traffic in 2026. Panera Bread fell 7.4 percent by the same comparison, while Sweetgreen dropped 3.1 percent.
The broader restaurant data points in the same direction. Placer.ai found foot traffic at quick-service chains such as McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A, and Wendy’s was up 0.8 percent compared with their average Sunday traffic. Fast-casual chains, whose menus tend to use more fresh produce than traditional fast-food chains, were down 2.4 percent.
No federal agency has tied Chop’t, Panera, or Sweetgreen to the outbreak, according to WIRED. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that nearly 7,000 people may have been sickened, but federal authorities have not identified an ingredient, grower, or supplier as the cause.
Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services, in the state with the highest reported case count, has described lettuce or salad greens as a potential source. That is a cautious phrase doing a lot of work. Past cyclospora outbreaks have been connected to raw produce, including herbs, raspberries, and lettuce. Heat kills the parasite, but diners generally do not cook berries or salad greens, because that would be grim even by airport-food standards.
The market reaction has been rough for the public companies in the blast radius. WIRED reported that Sweetgreen shares were down 23.3 percent over the previous five days at the time of publication. Chop’t and Panera Bread are privately held, so there is no comparable public stock chart to stare at while pretending it is epidemiology. WIRED said the salad-focused chains did not respond to requests for comment.
The only chain WIRED identified as having suspected links to the outbreak is Taco Bell. Some Taco Bell restaurants in the Detroit area posted notices saying they could not sell lettuce, cilantro onion, pico de gallo, and guacamole because of a nationwide recall. The Washington Post reported that health officials are examining whether Taco Bell played a role in the outbreak.
Shares of Yum Brands, Taco Bell’s parent company, were down 7.2 percent over five days, according to WIRED. Placer.ai found Taco Bell visits down 5.8 percent on July 11 compared with the chain’s average Sunday traffic. In Michigan, where the case count has reached 4,312, Taco Bell traffic was down 11.5 percent by the same measure.
The fear is not evenly distributed. In New York, two customers outside a Sweetgreen in Manhattan’s Financial District told WIRED they had not heard about the cyclospora outbreak. New York has reported 510 cases so far in 2026, including more than 380 in New York City, which the city health department said is about triple last year’s level.
Outside a nearby Chop’t, customer Victoria Atweh told WIRED she had a positive first visit and had not been thinking about the outbreak. That is one diner, not a trendline. The trendline, for now, says lettuce has become a business risk until investigators name what actually caused the outbreak.
This story draws on original reporting from WIRED.
