Salmonella Outbreak Tied to Idaho Broccoli Sprouts Grows to 32 Cases in Six States

A multistate outbreak of Salmonella infections tied to broccoli sprouts grown by an Idaho company has grown to 32 confirmed illnesses across six states, according to an updated federal outbreak investigation that the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are running jointly. The sprouts, grown by Evergreen Fresh Sprouts LLC of Moyie Springs, Idaho, were recalled earlier this month, but health officials say the case count has continued to climb even after distribution stopped.

A Widening Multistate Investigation

As of the FDA's most recent update, 32 people in Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, Oregon, Utah and Washington have been confirmed infected with the outbreak strain, Salmonella Bovismorbificans. Three people have been hospitalized; no deaths have been reported. The most recently reported illness began on September 3, though investigators caution that recent cases take time to be confirmed and added to the count, meaning the true total is likely higher.

The case count has roughly tripled since the outbreak first became public. When Evergreen Fresh Sprouts recalled 215 cases of broccoli sprouts on September 10, only 22 illnesses across four states had been linked to the strain. The recalled sprouts were sold in clear 4-ounce zip-lock bags and clamshell containers under a label bearing UPC 8 38796 00105 1, with use-by dates of September 7, 9, 11, 14 and 16. According to the company's own account in the recall notice, the product was delivered to three distributors in Washington between August 24 and September 2 and "may have been further distributed and sold in retail stores to consumers" in Idaho, Montana and Washington, and possibly beyond.

Investigators traced the outbreak back to the grower after Montana's state laboratory tested an unopened bag of broccoli sprouts pulled from a sick patient's refrigerator. Whole genome sequencing showed the bacteria inside matched the strain making people ill elsewhere, giving investigators the physical link they needed to name the grower publicly. Evergreen Fresh Sprouts has said it stopped producing and distributing broccoli sprouts on September 4 and is conducting what it calls a root-cause investigation into how the bacteria got into its product.

A Grower With a Troubled Track Record

This is not the first time sprouts from this grower have made people sick. Public health records show Evergreen Fresh Sprouts has now been linked to three separate multistate outbreaks since 2011: a 2011 Salmonella Enteritidis outbreak tied to alfalfa and spicy sprouts that sickened 25 people in five states, and a 2014 outbreak of E. coli O121 tied to raw clover sprouts that sickened 19 people in six states and hospitalized nearly half of those with information available. Unlike the current episode, the company did not issue a recall in 2014, and in 2011 it initially declined to recall its product before reversing course.

"A recall produces lot codes, a distribution list, notification down the chain to every distributor, restaurant and grocer, and an entry in FDA's enforcement reports," said food safety attorney Bill Marler, who has represented sprout-outbreak victims and has tracked the company's outbreak history, of the paper trail a formal recall creates that an informal shutdown does not.

Raw sprouts have long been one of the produce aisle's riskier items, and not because any single grower is uniquely careless. Sprouts germinate in warm, humid conditions that are ideal for bacteria to multiply, and if pathogens are present on or inside a seed, rinsing the finished sprouts does little to remove them. The FDA's own guidance on selecting and serving produce safely notes that washing sprouts may reduce bacteria on the surface but will not eliminate it, and that only thorough cooking reliably kills the pathogens that can be inside.

Who Sprouts Put at Greatest Risk

The illnesses reported so far span a wide age range, and health officials say the people most likely to become seriously ill from any raw-sprout exposure are the same groups at heightened risk from most raw produce: young children, adults over 65, pregnant women and anyone with a weakened immune system. FDA guidance recommends those groups avoid raw or lightly cooked sprouts of any kind, not only broccoli sprouts, because the growing conditions that make sprouts nutritious also make them hospitable to Salmonella, Listeria and E. coli.

Distribution in this outbreak has so far been traced to grocery stores, restaurants and food-service accounts in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain West, with Washington state health officials reporting the largest concentration of cases. But both the FDA and the company have acknowledged that the sprouts, sold in bulk to distributors rather than directly to consumers, could have traveled further than the three states where sales have been confirmed, which is part of why the illness map keeps expanding even weeks after the product left shelves.

What Happens Next

The investigation remains open, and the FDA has not said when it expects to close the case file. Consumers who still have broccoli sprouts matching the recalled lot codes and use-by dates are advised to throw them away rather than eat or cook them, and to wash any containers, shelves or cutting surfaces the sprouts may have touched. Symptoms of Salmonella infection, including diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps, typically appear between six hours and six days after exposure and resolve within a week in most healthy adults, though officials advise anyone with severe or persistent symptoms to contact a health care provider.

Coverage of the case count as it has grown has been tracked by outlets including Food Poisoning Bulletin, which has followed the outbreak since the initial recall. For now, federal and state investigators say the immediate priority is confirming how far the recalled sprouts traveled before they were pulled, and whether the contamination originated with the seed supply, the growing water, or conditions inside the Moyie Springs facility itself. Until that root-cause review is finished, the broader question the case has revived — how a small grower with a repeated history of contamination keeps returning to store shelves — remains unresolved.