Federal health officials say alfalfa sprouts have sickened at least 55 people across 15 states, and two brands are being pulled from shelves.
The CDC and FDA announced the outbreak Friday. The sprouts were grown by Everything Sprouts, a Minneapolis company, and sold under two brand names, Everything Sprouts and Calco. They went out to grocery stores and restaurants in five ounce containers with lids, distributed starting May 27. If you have either brand in your refrigerator, throw it out or take it back to the store, and wash anything the package touched with hot soapy water or run it through the dishwasher.
Four people have been hospitalized. No deaths have been reported. States confirmed so far include Florida, Minnesota, North Carolina and Wisconsin.
The strangest part of this outbreak is that it involves two entirely different bacteria at the same time. Forty six people were infected with E. coli, seven with salmonella, and two people managed to get both. Food poisoning outbreaks are almost always traced to a single germ, and the CDC noted it has only occasionally investigated a multi pathogen outbreak like this one. That is the detail that turned a regional recall into national news.
The timeline is worth knowing too. The first illness began on May 31. The most recent one on record started August 8. The FDA opened an inspection and began collecting samples at the Everything Sprouts facility on August 19, and the public warning came two days later. Investigators identified the source by interviewing people about what they ate the week before getting sick. Of 34 people interviewed, 26 reported eating alfalfa sprouts.
Everything Sprouts issued the recall voluntarily and says it is cooperating with both agencies. The company also says it tests its products daily and has not gotten a positive result. The federal traceback pointed to its sprouts anyway, and the FDA says the investigation is still open, including whether other products or companies are involved.
Symptoms can appear anywhere from a few days to nine days after eating contaminated food. Watch for severe stomach cramps, diarrhea, fever, nausea and vomiting. E. coli in particular can cause bloody diarrhea and in serious cases lead to a form of kidney failure. The people most at risk are children under five, adults over 65, pregnant people and anyone with a weakened immune system.
There is a bigger reason sprouts keep showing up in stories like this one. Growing them requires warm, humid conditions, and those are exactly the conditions bacteria thrive in. The seeds themselves can carry germs before they ever sprout, and no amount of rinsing at home reliably removes contamination once it is inside. That is why the CDC’s standing advice is that anyone in a higher risk group should skip raw sprouts entirely, and why cooking them thoroughly is the only real protection.
This is the second alfalfa sprout outbreak in recent years. A 2022 outbreak tied to a different grower followed nearly the same pattern, right down to the share of interviewed patients who reported eating them.
