Berlin Seeds of Millersburg, Ohio, recalled 950 pounds of alfalfa sprouting seed on Wednesday, and FDA posted the notice the same day. The seed is from lot SAL2-24JB, the lot International Sprout Holdings of Cookeville, Tennessee, began recalling on August 23 after alfalfa sprouts grown from it by Everything Sprouts of Minneapolis were tied to 55 illnesses in 15 states: 46 with Shiga toxin-producing E. coli of three serotypes, seven with Salmonella Agona, two with both, four hospitalized. Berlin Seeds sold the seed from February 13 to August 23, in its store and online, to customers in 44 states, in bags from a quarter pound to 50 pounds. Only the five- and 50-pound bags bear the lot code. One illness has been reported to the company. It is the sixth recall of sprouts or sprouting seed since August 22.
The same day, FDA’s outbreak table added two investigations with no food named, 25 people sick with E. coliO157:H7 in a joint file with USDA and 40 sick with Listeria monocytogenes, moved the Salmonella Newport file to 116, marked every remaining Cyclospora file ended, and closed the frozen blueberry and moringa files. Ten rows on the table now name no food. They carry 645 people.
The seed lot is a retail product now, and a quarter-pound bag has nothing on it to check
On September 15 FDA’s advisory said the recalled seed lot went to sprout growers and wholesale distributors and may also have reached retail. Berlin Seeds sold it in five sizes, from a quarter-pound resealable bag to a 50-pound sack, in every state but six. The lot code is printed only on the five- and 50-pound packages. For the smaller sizes, the purchase window is the only identifier.
The notice says the supplier told Berlin Seeds the lot had been traced to a sprout grower in FDA’s investigation, and that spent irrigation water from one of the supplier’s alfalfa seed lots tested positive for E. coli, the finding Todd’s Seeds cited in its September 15 notice, which named the supplier as International Specialty Supply. Berlin Seeds’ notice does not name the supplier, as Food Safety News noted. The 950 pounds is about two percent of the 43,799-pound lot.
The illness reported to Berlin Seeds is a report, not a confirmed case; nothing public says whether that person is among the 55. The dates say this seed was in home kitchens long before anyone got sick: Todd’s Seeds shipped its lots beginning January 10, Berlin Seeds began selling February 13, and the first outbreak onset was May 31. Sprouting seed means days in warm water, the conditions that grew four pathogens out of this lot in Minneapolis.
Three recalls of one lot in a month, and the page the public reads names none of them
| Date | What happened | Where it is on the record |
| Aug. 22 | Everything Sprouts recalls Calco and Everything Sprouts alfalfa sprouts | FDA recall page; advisory updated Aug. 24 |
| Aug. 23 | International Sprout Holdings begins recalling lot SAL2-24JB by email to customers; Berlin Seeds’ sales window ends | FDA Enforcement Report; Berlin Seeds notice |
| Aug. 31 | FDA says the supplier has not responded to its recall recommendation, and a second grower used the lot | FDA advisory |
| Sept. 10 | The supplier’s recall appears in FDA’s weekly Enforcement Report | Enforcement Report; eFoodAlert |
| Sept. 15 | FDA says the supplier agreed to recall, and the lot may have reached retail; Todd’s Seeds posts its notice | FDA advisory; Todd’s Seeds website |
| Sept. 23 | Berlin Seeds’ notice is posted | FDA recall page |
FDA’s advisory is still stamped September 15. It names no supplier, no lot number, no second grower and no retailer. Its distribution list, 16 states plus Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, Tahiti and Venezuela, is the wholesale tier. Berlin Seeds’ 44 states are the retail tier for two percent of the lot, and that notice sits on FDA’s recall page, not on the outbreak page a home sprouter would read. The supplier’s name has been public since Phyllis Entis found it in the Enforcement Report on September 10, and I wrote about it that day; the advisory still omits it.
Berlin Seeds says the recall was initiated after the supplier notified it and does not say when. The record shows sales stopping on August 23, the day the Enforcement Report says the supplier began emailing customers, and a public notice on September 23. What happened to the retail notice in those 31 days is a fair question for FDA and both companies, and no page answers it.
Sprouts again: two outbreaks this summer, five sprout files on FDA’s tables in two years, six recalls in a month
This recall does not stand alone. Evergreen Fresh Sprouts of Moyie Springs, Idaho, recalled its broccoli sprouts September 4 after a Montana sample matched the outbreak strain; CDC counts 22 sick with SalmonellaBovismorbificans in Idaho, Montana, Utah and Washington, two hospitalized, and Washington’s own countreached 27 on September 17. That is FDA reference #1411, posted September 10, and CDC says the two sprout outbreaks do not appear to be related. It is Evergreen’s third outbreak since 2011, after Salmonella Enteritidis in 2011 and E. coli O121 in 2014.
Behind those two sit three more sprout files on FDA’s closed tables. Salmonella Oranienburg in alfalfa sproutsfrom an unnamed Arizona grower, five sick, closed in 2025 with FDA’s own summary saying the source was likely the seed. Salmonella Anatum in Deep-brand frozen sprouted beans, 12 sick in 11 states, four hospitalized, recalled in July 2025. And E. coli O26:H11 in sprouts, ten sick, posted October 2024 and closed with no firm named. Counting the Everything Sprouts recall and its expansion, the supplier’s seed recall, Evergreen, Todd’s Seeds and Berlin Seeds, that is six recalls of sprouts or sprouting seed in 32 days. FDA’s own guidance for seed producers says contaminated seed has been the most common source of sprout contamination and the likely cause of most sprout outbreaks from 2012 to 2020, which is why I am drafting a citizen petition asking FDA to require a warning statement on the package, the advice it has given high-risk consumers since 1998.
Two new outbreaks, 65 sick, no food named, and one of them has a USDA number
Reference #1421 is E. coli O157:H7, 25 sick, posted September 23 with traceback initiated, the only active row with a USDA number, FSIS reference 2026-04. FSIS’s outbreak page explains the shared number: an outbreak appears on both tables when products regulated by both agencies are suspected sources. In plain terms, meat or poultry has not been ruled out. The last two rows on FDA’s table with USDA numbers were Listeriaoutbreaks in prepared pasta meals and ready-to-eat deli foods, multi-ingredient products. When I wrote about FSIS’s table in August, it listed three investigations for all of 2026, everyone closed. This would be the fourth.
Reference #1417 is Listeria monocytogenes, 40 sick, traceback initiated, with no states, ages, hospitalizations, deaths or onset dates. For a pathogen CDC estimate sickens about 1,600 people a year and kills about 260, and which hospitalizes nearly everyone counted in an outbreak, 40 is a large file; the 2024 Boar’s Head outbreak, which my firm litigated, ended at 61 sick and ten dead. Such clusters can include illnesses years apart, and without dates the row does not say. Neither file has an advisory, and as of this writing CDC had posted no notice for either.
Ten rows with no food named now carry 645 people
The table lists 16 active investigations. Ten name no food: the new O157 and Listeria files at 25 and 40, Salmonella Newport at 116, Salmonella I 4,[5],12:i:- at 43, Salmonella Oranienburg at 99, the older Listeriafile at ten, and four Cyclospora files at 234, 38, 22 and 18. That is 645 people. A week ago, eight rows carried 575.
The Newport file, posted August 26, went from 111 to 116 and, for the first time, shows sampling initiated: four weeks of traceback have produced something to sample, and the table does not say what. All five Cyclosporafiles are now marked ended while FDA’s investigations stay active; the four with no food named hold 312 people, part of the 7,000 confirmed cases no outbreak file explains.
Two files moved to the closed table. The frozen blueberry E. coli O145:H28 file closed at 17 sick and six hospitalized in Florida and Georgia; CDC ended it September 21, and FDA’s final update disclosed that a sample Publix collected early on matched the outbreak strain, the first strain match to product on the advisory. The moringa leaf powder file, 131 sick, 36 hospitalized, 38 states, posted January 14, also closed. FDA’s advisory said the investigation was complete on July 22; the table carried it as active for two more months. My firm represents people sickened in the moringa outbreaks.
Three questions
Which Berlin Seeds bags are recalled? Every size sold from February 13 to August 23, 2026. Lot code SAL2-24JB is printed only on the five- and 50-pound bags; the smaller bags carry no code.
Is this the seed that caused the alfalfa sprout outbreak? It is the lot number in the supplier’s recall in FDA’s Enforcement Report, and Berlin Seeds says the supplier traced the lot to a grower in FDA’s investigation. FDA’s advisory has not been updated to say so.
Is this related to the broccoli sprout outbreak? No. CDC says the Everything Sprouts and Evergreen Fresh Sprouts outbreaks do not appear to be related.
The seed lot is the common thread in this outbreak, and sprouts are the common thread in the season. The public list of where the lot went is being assembled one retailer notice at a time, a month after the supplier started emailing, on a page most people never open, while the advisory they do open names nobody. And the table added 65 people and no food on the same day it closed two files whose most useful facts reached the page only at the end.
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