Alfalfa Sprouts Sickened 55 People in 15 States. Forty-Six of Them Had E. Coli.
A Minneapolis grower recalled its five-ounce containers after federal health officials tied a rare double outbreak to a single farm. Illnesses began May 31.
Everything Sprouts, a Minneapolis grower, has recalled its alfalfa sprouts after federal health officials linked them to an outbreak that has sickened 55 people across 15 states with two different bacteria at once.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a food safety alert on Sept. 1 that 46 of the confirmed cases involved Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, seven involved salmonella, and two people were infected with both. Four have been hospitalized. Illness onset dates run from May 31 through Aug. 8.
The recall covers five-ounce plastic containers of alfalfa sprouts sold under the Everything Sprouts and Calco brand names, distributed since May 27 to third-party distributors, restaurants and grocery stores in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Those two states account for most of the illnesses: 23 cases in Minnesota, two of them hospitalized, and 17 in Wisconsin, one hospitalized. Cases have also turned up in Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota and Washington, a spread consistent with product moving through distributors well beyond the retail footprint.
The company said it tests daily and has "not received any positive lab results" of its own. That is not unusual in sprout outbreaks. Contamination typically originates in the seed rather than the growing facility, and it is often patchy enough that routine sampling misses it even when the finished product is making people sick.
Sprouts have a long and specific history with the Food and Drug Administration. Seeds are germinated in warm, humid conditions for days, which is close to an ideal environment for whatever bacteria are already present on the seed coat to multiply, and the product is eaten raw. The FDA has advised for years that children, adults over 65, pregnant women and anyone with a weakened immune system avoid raw sprouts entirely.
Health officials are telling consumers not to eat any alfalfa sprouts sold under either brand, to throw them out even if some have already been eaten without anyone getting sick, and to wash containers and refrigerator surfaces that held them. Shiga toxin-producing E. coli generally causes severe stomach cramps, bloody diarrhea and vomiting three to four days after exposure, and in a small share of cases progresses to hemolytic uremic syndrome, a form of kidney failure. Salmonella usually brings diarrhea, fever and cramps within six hours to six days.
The case count is likely to rise. It takes roughly three to four weeks for an illness to be confirmed and reported to the CDC, which means anyone who ate the sprouts in the last month may not yet appear in the totals.
It is the third significant produce outbreak the agencies have worked this year, after jalapeños from Sinaloa sickened 345 people in 27 states and salmonella traced to Texas egg farms sickened 98 across 17 states.
Originally reported by CBS News.