Salmonella Sprout Outbreak: More Reports and Lawsuits

Washington, DCAs of mid-March, seven states reported outbreaks of Salmonella Saintpaul that sickened at least 35 people. Health officials linked the outbreak to raw alfalfa sprouts from restaurants and retail outlets.

The initial investigation has traced the contaminated raw alfalfa sprouts to multiple sprout growers in multiple states. The number of ill persons identified in each state is as follows: Michigan (17), Minnesota (4), Ohio (3), Pennsylvania (6), South Dakota (2), Utah (1), and West Virginia (2). Cases are still being reported, and possible cases are in various stages of laboratory testing, so illnesses may be reported from other states. No deaths have been reported to date.

The initial investigation has traced the contaminated raw alfalfa sprouts to multiple sprout growers in multiple states. This suggests a problem with the seeds used, as well as the possible failure of the sprout growers involved to appropriately and consistently follow the FDA Sprout Guidance issued in 1999.

The guidance recommends an effective seed disinfection treatment immediately before the start of sprouting (such as treating seeds in a 20,000 parts per million calcium hypochlorite solution with agitation for 15 minutes) and regularly testing the water used for every batch of sprouts for Salmonella and E coli O157:H7.

This outbreak appears to be an extension of an earlier outbreak in February and March of 2009, when an outbreak of 120 Salmonella Saintpaul infections occurred in Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, and Minnesota. That outbreak was linked to raw alfalfa sprouts produced at a single facility, and the outbreak strain was indistinguishable from that of the recently reported cases.

The CDC is also currently working with public health officials in several states and the FDA to investigate an outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes infections linked with eating alfalfa sprouts. The FDA recommends that consumers not eat raw sprouts and that elderly people with weak immune systems cut out sprouts entirely.

Meanwhile a lawsuit has been filed against CW Sprouts, Inc., whose Sprouts products were linked to the outbreak in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Colorado and South Dakota. The suit also names Caudill Seed and Warehouse Co. of Louisville, Ky., the company that manufactured and sold alfalfa sprout seeds to CW Sprouts.