Don't Eat These Alfalfa Sprouts, Officials Warn

Throw them out

If you have alfalfa sprouts in your refrigerator sold under the Calco or Everything Sprouts brands, Minnesota health officials say do not eat them.

The sprouts were produced by Everything Sprouts, a Minnesota grower, and sold to restaurants and grocery stores under both brand names, according to Minnesota officials cited by the Associated Press.

So far the warning covers two states: Minnesota and Wisconsin. Officials have not named a wider distribution list.

The case count

Twenty-three people in Minnesota have gotten sick with either E. coli or salmonella infections, officials say. Two were hospitalized.

Wisconsin investigators have identified another 18 illnesses tied to alfalfa sprouts, according to Minnesota officials. That is 41 cases across the two states.

What makes this outbreak strange is that it involves several different germs at once. Three people had salmonella, and one of those also carried a strain of E. coli called STEC O168:H8. Seven more were sickened by a different strain, STEC O103:H25. Thirteen had yet another, STEC O26:H11.

A second, much bigger outbreak — and it is not the same one

The sprout warning is landing in the middle of a far larger food safety story, and the two are separate. The sprouts are tied to bacteria. The other outbreak is a parasite, cyclospora, and it has been tied to iceberg lettuce.

The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that recalled iceberg lettuce from a Taylor Farms facility in central Mexico may have been distributed in nine more areas than previously reported, The Independent reported. Those are California, Delaware, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington state, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

The FDA had already said the product went to restaurants and retail stores in nearly three dozen states from late June into July.

"The total case count associated with this multi-state outbreak is now 10,930 illnesses reported from 17 states," the FDA said.

Nationally, the numbers are bigger. More than 27,000 cases of cyclosporiasis have been reported across more than 40 states, according to the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data cited by The Independent. Not all of those have been genetically linked to the lettuce.

Michigan is the hardest-hit state. Its health department reported 14,277 cases on Thursday, up 368 or about 3 percent from a week earlier — a slower rate of increase that officials say suggests the outbreak may be starting to ease, NTD reported. Michigan has recorded 335 hospitalizations and two deaths.

Some Michigan patients were sickened after eating at Taco Bell, which has pulled the lettuce from its restaurants.

In California, San Francisco has confirmed 10 cyclosporiasis cases, including one resident whose infection was genetically associated with the multistate outbreak, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The bottom line

Two things are true at once. If you are in Minnesota or Wisconsin, check your fridge for Calco and Everything Sprouts alfalfa sprouts and throw them out. And the cyclospora outbreak, which is a different pathogen in a different product, is still the largest of its kind the country has recorded — even as Michigan's numbers hint it may finally be slowing.