EAK Distribution LLC of Casper, Wyoming, is recalling HOME GROWN Green Sprouting Calabrese Broccoli Seeds, 8 oz, Heirloom, because the seed may be contaminated with Salmonella. The seed was sold on Amazon.com to customers nationwide between August 20 and September 18, 2026. It comes in a cream-colored pouch with UPC 850056627443, and the production lot code AUG172026 is embossed on the top seal. Anyone who has a pouch should not sprout the seed or eat anything grown from it, should throw it away, and can contact Amazon for a full refund. EAK can be reached at 541-306-4278, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific. FDA posted the notice on October 2.
The seed lot was used by a sprout grower in a multistate outbreak
The notice says why the seed is being recalled. EAK’s seed supplier told the company that the seed had been identified as “being used by a sprout grower whose finished product were part of an FDA investigation” into a multistate foodborne illness outbreak. On September 16 the supplier told EAK there might be a problem with bulk seed lot W4105, the lot EAK had purchased and packed into pouches, and the supplier recalled that bulk lot. EAK says it halted sales on September 17. On September 28 the supplier told EAK that FDA had collected and analyzed a broccoli seed sample and detected Salmonella in it. No illnesses have been reported to EAK.
The notice does not name the supplier, the grower or the outbreak.
Only one open outbreak fits
It does not have to. FDA has two sprout outbreaks open. One is alfalfa sprouts: Shiga toxin-producing E. coliand Salmonella Agona, 76 sick in 16 states by CDC’s October 1 count, traced to a single alfalfa seed lot from a Tennessee supplier. The other is broccoli sprouts grown by Evergreen Fresh Sprouts, LLC of Moyie Springs, Idaho: Salmonella Bovismorbificans, 32 sick in six states, three hospitalized, with illnesses beginning between July 7 and September 3. Evergreen stopped production on September 4 and recalled 215 cases of sprouts delivered to three Washington distributors between August 24 and September 2. A broccoli seed lot, used by a sprout grower whose product is in a multistate outbreak investigation, with Salmonella found in the seed, describes the second outbreak and not the first. FDA has not said so, and this post claims no more than the notice does: seed sold to home sprouters on Amazon came from the same bulk lot a commercial sprouter used, and FDA found Salmonella in that seed.
FDA’s own pages do not mention the seed
FDA’s advisory for the Evergreen outbreak was last updated September 24. It says the agency is “continuing its investigation to determine the source of contamination” and whether other products of concern are on the market. It says nothing about seed, a seed supplier, a seed recall or a positive seed sample. CDC’s page carries the same September 24 date. FDA’s outbreak table, updated September 30, shows that sampling has been initiated in the Evergreen investigation and reports no result. The supplier’s recall of the bulk lot, which EAK says had happened by September 16, is not on FDA’s recall page. As of this writing, the only public record of Salmonella in the seed behind a broccoli sprout outbreak is a recall notice from a company in Casper, Wyoming, that sells seed pouches on Amazon.
One more gap is worth naming. CDC’s count includes one patient each in Minnesota, Oregon and Utah, none of which is on FDA’s confirmed distribution map for Evergreen’s sprouts. Whether any of the 32 grew sprouts at home from seed is a question the public record does not answer.
Sixteen days, and seed does not expire
The timeline in the notice runs from September 16, when the supplier flagged the lot, to October 2, when the public learned of it: sixteen days. Sales continued through September 18 by the notice’s own account, two weeks after Evergreen stopped production and eight days after FDA posted Evergreen’s recall. The seed had been on sale since August 20, in the middle of the outbreak.
Sprouts are perishable. A bag of broccoli sprouts carries a use-by date about a week out, which is why FDA’s advisory notes that the recalled Evergreen sprouts should be past expiration and off the shelves. Seed is the opposite. A two-tablespoon scoop grows a quart jar of sprouts in four to six days, an eight-ounce pouch holds many such scoops, and a pouch bought in late August will still be in a pantry next spring. There is no expiration date to run out the clock. Every one of those pouches was sold through Amazon, which means every purchaser can be identified and reached by email. The notice does not say whether that has been done.
The second contaminated seed lot to reach home sprouters this summer
This is the second time in six weeks that the seed behind a sprout outbreak has turned up in retail packets for home sprouting. In the alfalfa outbreak, the implicated lot, SAL2-24JB, was sold by Todd’s Seeds through its website and Amazon, and by Berlin Seeds of Millersburg, Ohio, which recalled 950 pounds sold to customers in 44 states, much of it in small bags that carried no lot code. Now broccoli lot W4105 has reached home sprouters nationwide through Amazon. Counting the two Everything Sprouts recalls, the Tennessee seed supplier’s recall, Evergreen’s, Todd’s and Berlin’s, this is the seventh sprout or sprouting-seed recall made public since August 22. The notice describes an eighth, the broccoli seed supplier’s recall of its bulk lot, that has not been posted anywhere.
The reason this keeps happening is structural. FDA’s Produce Safety Rule has a subpart written for sprouts, but it governs the sprouter. FDA has said that it does not consider seed for sprouting to be covered produce, so the growing, conditioning and distribution of seed fall outside the rule, even though the agency considers that seed to be food and its 2022 seed guidance found that contaminated seed was the likely cause of most of the sprout outbreaks it analyzed from 2012 through 2020. A home sprouter who buys a pouch of seed on Amazon stands at the end of a supply chain the rule does not reach, and the pouch carries no warning.
That is why the draft citizen petition posted for public comment on Marler Blog on September 27 asks FDA to require a warning statement not only on packaged raw sprouts but on seed sold at retail for home sprouting. Comments are invited through October 9. The Berlin Seeds recall was the example in the draft. This recall is the second.
What to do if you have this seed
Check the pouch for the brand HOME GROWN, the words Green Sprouting Calabrese Broccoli Seeds, 8 oz, Heirloom, UPC 850056627443, and lot code AUG172026 on the top seal. Do not sprout the seed, and do not grow it for microgreens to eat. Throw it away and contact Amazon for a refund. Wash any sprouting jar, tray or lid the seed has touched in hot, soapy water or a dishwasher.
If you have already grown and eaten sprouts from this seed, watch for the symptoms of Salmonella infection: diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps, usually beginning six hours to six days after exposure according to CDC and lasting four to seven days. Children under five, adults 65 and older, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems are more likely to become seriously ill. See a doctor if you have diarrhea with a fever above 102°F, bloody diarrhea, diarrhea lasting more than two days, or signs of dehydration, and ask to be tested. A stool culture is what connects an illness to an outbreak strain, and this outbreak’s strain is SalmonellaBovismorbificans.
Marler Clark, The Food Safety Law Firm, is investigating the Evergreen Fresh Sprouts outbreak and has represented people sickened in sprout outbreaks since the early 2000s, including the 2014 E. coli outbreak traced to Evergreen’s clover sprouts. Information for people who became ill is on the firm’s outbreak page, and the firm can be reached at 1-800-884-9840. Bill Marler’s earlier coverage of this outbreak is on Marler Blog, including the company’s record of outbreaks in 2011, 2014 and 2026.
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