Broccoli sprout recall widens as Salmonella outbreak reaches four states

Federal and state health officials are investigating a multistate outbreak of Salmonella infections tied to broccoli sprouts grown by Evergreen Fresh Sprouts, LLC, a small producer based in Moyie Springs, Idaho. The company recalled 215 cases of the product on September 10 after health investigators traced the outbreak strain back to its farm, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the investigation remains open.

The recalled sprouts were sold loose in plastic bags and clamshell containers bearing expiration dates of September 7, 9, 11, 14 and 16, and were distributed to food co-ops, restaurants, foodservice customers and grocery stores in Idaho, Montana and Washington. The CDC has warned that the product "may have been distributed further, reaching additional states" beyond those three, and that anyone who bought sprouts within that window should not assume they are safe simply because they live elsewhere.

The numbers

As of the CDC's most recent count, 22 people across four states — Idaho, Montana, Utah and Washington — have been confirmed infected with the outbreak strain, identified through genetic sequencing as Salmonella Bovismorbificans. Two people have been hospitalized; no deaths have been reported. Illnesses began as early as July 7 and continued through late August, according to the agency's investigation update, which notes that patients ranged in age from 2 to 87, with a median age of 48.

Investigators interviewed 19 of the sick patients and found that all of them had eaten sprouts of some kind in the week before falling ill, and 89 percent specifically recalled eating broccoli sprouts — far higher than the roughly 9 percent of people who report eating that product in routine population surveys. That gap, combined with whole-genome sequencing that matched an unopened package of sprouts recovered from a Montana patient's refrigerator to the clinical isolates, gave the FDA and CDC enough evidence to name Evergreen Fresh Sprouts as the source even before every retail location had been identified.

A second sprout outbreak in a matter of weeks

This is not the only sprout-linked outbreak U.S. health agencies have tracked this summer. In August, the CDC and FDA closed in on a much larger, unrelated E. coli and Salmonella outbreak tied to alfalfa sprouts from a different Midwest producer, Everything Sprouts, LLC, which sickened 55 people across 15 states and hospitalized four. The CDC has explicitly said the two outbreaks are not connected, but their proximity has renewed attention on raw sprouts as a persistent weak point in the food supply.

Sprouts are grown in warm, humid conditions that are ideal for bacterial growth, and because they are eaten raw or lightly cooked, any contamination on the seed or in the growing water is rarely killed before the product reaches a plate. The FDA has flagged raw sprouts as a higher-risk food category for decades, and outbreaks tied to alfalfa, bean, clover and broccoli sprouts have recurred periodically since the 1990s. Public health nutritionists generally advise that pregnant women, young children, older adults and people with weakened immune systems avoid raw sprouts altogether, given how frequently the category turns up in recall notices.

Who has been affected

Washington has borne the brunt of the illnesses so far. State health officials there had confirmed 16 cases spread across eight counties as of September 9, with two hospitalizations and no deaths. Montana, where state health officials said case numbers were still likely to rise as lab results came in, and Idaho and Utah round out the remaining infections. The CDC has cautioned that the real toll is probably higher, since most people who get sick from Salmonella recover on their own and are never tested.

Because the company distributed to restaurants and foodservice accounts as well as retail stores, some of the people exposed may not know they ever bought the product directly — a common complication in sprout outbreaks, where the ingredient often shows up folded into a sandwich, salad or grain bowl rather than sold as a standalone item. The Idaho company, which local reporting in the Idaho Panhandle notes has operated in Moyie Springs for years, has not disclosed how the contamination occurred, and the FDA's traceback investigation is continuing at the farm.

What officials are telling consumers

The public guidance from CDC and state agencies has been blunt and consistent across jurisdictions.

Do not eat any recalled broccoli sprouts. Throw them away or return them.

Health departments in Washington and Montana have gone further, telling retailers and restaurants that received the product to pull it from shelves and menus immediately and to wash and sanitize any surfaces, containers or equipment the sprouts may have touched, since Salmonella can survive on countertops and cutting boards long enough to cross-contaminate other food. Anyone who develops a fever above 102 degrees Fahrenheit, diarrhea lasting more than two days, bloody diarrhea, or signs of dehydration is being urged to contact a healthcare provider right away.

What happens next

The investigation remains open, and the case count is expected to shift as more illnesses are confirmed or ruled out through genetic testing. Because the product's distribution extended to foodservice accounts whose customer lists are harder to trace than retail sales, the CDC has left open the possibility that more states will be added to the list before the outbreak is declared over. Consumers who are unsure whether sprouts they bought recently came from Evergreen Fresh Sprouts are advised to check the expiration dates on packaging or ask the retailer where the product originated, and to discard anything they cannot confirm is unaffected.

For now, health officials in the affected states say the priority is getting any remaining recalled product out of coolers, kitchens and store shelves, while laboratories continue matching new illness reports to the outbreak strain to determine how far the contamination actually spread.