The country’s ongoing Cyclospora outbreak is changing the familiar part of corporate America: having a salad for lunch.
In July, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration linked an outbreak of Cyclospora in several states to iceberg lettuce from central Mexico and distributed by fruit and vegetable producer Taylor Farms. Since then, salad-based restaurants that tend to line up at work desks at lunchtime have struggled.
On August 6, Sweet Green revised its full-year forecast downward, predicting a decline in sales and customer traffic. Its market value was about $700 million as of Monday’s close, down from about $1.2 billion in late May. Customer traffic at Chopt Creative Salad Co. reportedly decreased from mid-July to late July, according to data from location analytics company Placer.ai. “People have been turning away from us for a while,” says Kelly Roddy, CEO of SaladWorks’ parent brand, WoWorks. None of these three companies are involved in the Cyclospora outbreak.
Roddy said Salad Works’ customer traffic is now on the rise again. He declined to disclose specific numbers. But those returning to the previous lunchtime standby will likely find a different kind of restaurant waiting, one that seems to emphasize everything on the menu except the traditional salads.
Saladworks “quickly pivoted its marketing” to promoting protein bowls, soups and wraps, Roddy said. Sweetgreen is similarly promoting non-salad products, including its own protein bowls, plates and wraps, CEO Jonathan Neiman told CNBC Make It Thursday. “We can’t just wait until people are ready to eat vegetables again,” Neiman said.
Changes in marketing are significant. Before the outbreak, 69% of U.S. consumers said salad was their typical lunch, second only to sandwiches and wraps (77%) and pizza (71%), according to market intelligence firm Mintel Group’s 2025 U.S. Consumer Approaches Report. Sweetgreen wasn’t the only highly rated salad chain in the country. Privately held competitor Just Salad reportedly raised funding in February 2025 at a valuation of $1 billion. for example. (Just Salad, which has also not been linked to the Cyclospora outbreak, did not immediately respond to CNBC Make It’s request for comment.)
Some restaurants are still trying to capitalize on pre-pandemic popularity by redefining the term salad and omitting lettuce, said Kenny Rao, principal at Culinary Task Force, a Los Angeles-based hospitality consulting service. “They’re leaning toward grain salads, like millet salads,” he says. “They seem to be leaning towards crunchy salads, like bean salads and cruciferous salads.”
Other restaurants not involved in the outbreak are also trying to rehabilitate their salad reputations. Saladworks will offer deep discounts on salads once a week, Rodi said, and may add non-salad items, such as smoothies, to the menu. Sweetgreen is similarly trying to use promotions to bring customers “back to the restaurant,” Neiman noted Thursday.
Different types of companies are also addressing the same consumer concerns. Dilip Rao, CEO and co-founder of New York-based corporate meal delivery platform Sharebite, said he is responding to an increase in requests from customers to modify their regular lunch orders by removing or replacing lettuce. “We’ve seen a decline in activity since[the Cyclospora outbreak began],” said Rao, who runs a company that connects employers with local restaurants.
The shift in consumer behavior may not be permanent, as some salad chains are already recouping some of their summer losses. Pedestrian numbers in Choput in the first full week of August were 4.7% below the average for the first half of 2026, an improvement from 11.3% below the mid-July average, according to data from Placer.ai.
When the pandemic eventually subsides, consumers will likely return to their regular lunch preferences, predicts Stephanie Mattucci, principal food and beverage strategist at Mintel. “We expect people to return to their normal habits, as we’ve seen in other outbreaks in the past,” she says.
— CNBC Make It’s Kamiron McNair contributed reporting.
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