Everything Sprouts, LLC of Minneapolis recalled its alfalfa sprouts on August 22, 2026, in a notice FDA posted the same day. The recall covers five-ounce containers under the Everything Sprouts and Calco brands in lots 222, 223, 225, 226 and 230, distributed from May 27 through August 21 to wholesale distributors and grocery stores in Minnesota and Wisconsin. It also covers two products that had not appeared in any earlier federal or state advisory: Everything Sprouts Crunchy Protein Sprout Mix and Zesty Garlic Mix cups. Fifty-five people in fifteen states are sick and four have been hospitalized.
The recalled lots are 222, 223, 225, 226 and 230, and both brands are covered.
Friday night the company posted a recall notice on its own website that listed no lot numbers at all and never mentioned the Calco brand. Saturday’s notice, published through FDA, fixes both problems. Here is what is actually being recalled.
| Product | Package | Lot numbers | Bar code(s) |
| Alfalfa sprouts — Everything Sprouts and Calco brands | 5 oz plastic container (Alfalfa 6/5 oz and 12/6/5 oz) | 222, 223, 225, 226, 230 | 860014523113, 860014523120, 850079470149 |
| Crunchy Protein Sprout Mix | 5 oz cup | 222, 223, 226, 230 | See product photos on FDA’s page |
| Zesty Garlic Mix | 5 oz cup | 222, 223, 225, 226, 230 | See product photos on FDA’s page |
Source: Everything Sprouts, LLC company announcement, published by FDA August 22, 2026. Note that Crunchy Protein Sprout Mix is recalled in four lots, not five — lot 225 is on the alfalfa and the Zesty Garlic list but not on the Crunchy Protein list. Read the lot numbers product by product rather than assuming all five apply to everything.
Two sprout mix cups are in this recall, and they had not been named anywhere before today.
This is the part of the notice a shopper most needs to see. Until this morning, every public warning in this outbreak named one product: alfalfa sprouts, under the Everything Sprouts and Calco brands. FDA said it. CDC said it. Minnesota and Wisconsin said it on August 20. Anyone who bought a cup of Crunchy Protein Sprout Mix or Zesty Garlic Mix had no reason to think the warnings applied to them.
They do. The company says the same alfalfa sprouts went into both mixes. If you have either cup in your refrigerator, check the lot number against the table above and throw it out if it matches. A mixed product carries the hazard of every ingredient in it, and a consumer has no way to know which sprouts came from which grower unless somebody tells her.
The bar codes in the notice may not be the bar code on the package in your refrigerator.
The written notice lists three bar codes: 860014523113, 860014523120 and 850079470149. FDA’s own product photo captions describe those as tray codes — the twelve-count and six-count cases a store receives. The caption on the consumer label photo shows a different number, 768944000059, on the five-ounce package a person actually carries home. The Zesty Garlic and Crunchy Protein labels carry their own separate numbers again.
The practical consequence is simple. If you look at your clamshell, fail to find any of the three bar codes printed in the recall notice, and conclude your sprouts are fine, you may be wrong. Go by the brand, the product and the lot number. Look at the product photos at the bottom of FDA’s recall page and compare the label, not the case code. When in doubt, throw it out — these are sprouts, and there is no version of this where holding onto them is worth it.
Two different recall notices are live right now, and the older one is still on the company’s website.
The company posted its own recall notice on August 21 as a PDF on everythingsprouts.com. As of August 22, with the corrected version published through FDA, that Friday document is still sitting there unchanged. Anyone who searches the company name and lands on its website first — which is what a lot of people do — gets the wrong one. The two documents do not say the same thing.
| Detail | Company PDF, Aug 21 | FDA-published notice, Aug 22 |
| Lot numbers | None listed | 222, 223, 225, 226, 230 |
| Calco brand | Not mentioned | Named as a recalled brand |
| Sprout mix cups | Not mentioned | Both cups recalled, by lot |
| STEC serotypes named | Two | Three |
| Illnesses acknowledged | States none reported to the company | States 55 reported by agencies |
| Instructions for consumers | None | Dispose, clean and sanitize |
| Product photos | None | Six label and case photos |
Sources: Everything Sprouts, LLC recall notice posted at everythingsprouts.com dated August 21, 2026, retrieved August 22, 2026; and the company announcement published by FDA on August 22, 2026. Both were live at the time of retrieval.
The Friday document has one more problem worth knowing about if you are handed a copy of it. It ends with FDA’s blank sample recall notice, still in the file — a fictional company in Anywhere, MS recalling five-ounce packages of Snackies, lot 666666, expiration 12/12/99. That template is the only place in the entire Friday document where a consumer is told to do anything, and what it tells her is to return a fictional product for a refund. Go by the FDA-published notice and disregard the version on the company’s site.
The notice says the product went to two states. People are sick in fifteen.
The recall says distribution ran to wholesale distributors and grocery stores in Minnesota and Wisconsin. It names no distributor and no store. CDC has confirmed illnesses in fifteen states.
| State | Cases | State | Cases |
| Minnesota | 21 | New Hampshire | 1 |
| Wisconsin | 17 | New York | 2 |
| Florida | 2 | North Carolina | 2 |
| Indiana | 1 | North Dakota | 2 |
| Iowa | 1 | Pennsylvania | 1 |
| Kansas | 1 | South Carolina | 1 |
| Michigan | 1 | South Dakota | 1 |
| Washington | 1 |
Source: CDC case counts, alfalfa sprouts outbreak page, retrieved August 22, 2026. 21 + 17 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 55. Minnesota and Wisconsin together hold 38 of the 55, and ten of the fifteen states have exactly one case. These are states of residence, not states where the sprouts were eaten. Minnesota’s health department reports 23 cases against CDC’s 21 for the same state — when you cite a number, cite the agency it belongs to and do not add state totals on top of CDC’s national count.
A distributor in Minnesota can ship to a wholesaler that serves several states, so a two-state distribution statement and a fifteen-state illness map are not necessarily in conflict. What is missing is the list that would settle it. FDA’s outbreak advisory still says the agency is working to determine additional distribution information.
Fifty-five sick, four hospitalized, four organisms, and onsets going back to May 31.
The recall notice acknowledges all fifty-five illnesses, which is a change from Friday’s version. Of the fifty-five, forty-six had E. coli alone, seven had Salmonella alone, and two are recorded as having had both. Take that last number as a floor: a laboratory is generally looking for a pathogen, not every pathogen, and the work usually stops once something grows.
The organisms are Shiga toxin-producing E. coli O26:H11, O103:H25 and O168:H8, plus Salmonella Agona. Illness onsets run from May 31 through August 8, 2026. Because it takes three to four weeks for a case to work its way through testing and reporting, the count will almost certainly go up. FDA opened an inspection and began sampling at the plant on August 19. FDA had already warned this facility in March 2025 about insanitary conditions and said it would evaluate the corrections at the next inspection.
What to do if you have any of these products.
Do not eat them. Throw them away, or return them to the store. The company and FDA both say to dispose of the product rather than return it in the case of retailers and distributors, and to carefully clean and sanitize any surface or container the sprouts touched — hot soapy water, or the dishwasher. Do not try to wash the sprouts. Bacteria on a sprout can be inside it, having come in with the seed, and rinsing does not reach that.
If you ate these sprouts and got sick, call your doctor. Ask that a stool sample be cultured and that the isolate be kept. Whole genome sequencing is how a single illness gets matched to an outbreak strain, and isolates are routinely discarded once a patient is treated. Keep the package, the receipt, or a photograph of either.
Questions people are asking about this outbreak and recall
Which lot numbers are recalled?
Lots 222, 223, 225, 226 and 230 for Everything Sprouts and Calco alfalfa sprouts in five-ounce containers, and for Zesty Garlic Mix cups. For Crunchy Protein Sprout Mix cups the recalled lots are 222, 223, 226 and 230 — lot 225 is not on that product’s list. The lots were distributed from May 27 through August 21, 2026.
Are Calco sprouts included in the recall?
Yes. FDA’s recall page lists both Everything Sprouts and Calco as brand names on the recalled alfalfa sprouts. Calco Sprouts is a Minneapolis company founded in 1991 that now operates under Everything Sprouts, LLC. The recall notice the company posted on its own website on Friday, August 21 did not mention Calco; the notice published through FDA on August 22 does.
I bought a sprout mix cup, not plain alfalfa sprouts. Does this affect me?
It may. Everything Sprouts Crunchy Protein Sprout Mix and Zesty Garlic Mix, both in five-ounce cups, are included in the recall because the same alfalfa sprouts went into them. Check the lot number on the cup. This is new information as of August 22 and was not part of any earlier warning.
The company’s own website says no illnesses have been reported. Which version is right?
The August 22 notice published through FDA is the current one, and it states that fifty-five illnesses have been reported by federal and state partners. The August 21 PDF still posted on everythingsprouts.com says no reports of illness have been reported to the company, lists no lot numbers, and does not mention the Calco brand or the two sprout mix cups. If you are looking at a recall notice for these sprouts, check the date. Use the August 22 version.
What symptoms should I watch for, and when?
STEC symptoms usually begin two to eight days after exposure: severe stomach cramps, diarrhea that is often bloody, and little or no fever. Salmonella typically appears within six to seventy-two hours, with diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps. Call a doctor for bloody diarrhea, a fever above 102, diarrhea lasting more than three days, or signs of dehydration. In children, decreased urination, unusual tiredness and loss of color in the cheeks and inside the lower eyelids can signal hemolytic uremic syndrome, a form of kidney failure that follows STEC infection and is most common in children under five.
How many people are sick, and is the outbreak over?
Fifty-five confirmed in fifteen states as of August 22, with four hospitalizations and no deaths. It is not over. The most recent illness onset FDA has is August 8, but recent illnesses take three to four weeks to be confirmed and reported, so cases from the past few weeks have not yet shown up in the count. The confirmed number is also always smaller than the true number, because most people with foodborne illness never get a stool test.
Can I make a claim if I got sick?
Marler Clark is investigating this outbreak and represents people sickened by contaminated food nationwide. There is no cost for a consultation. Call 1-800-884-9840 or reach us through marlerclark.com/contact.
More on this outbreak: FDA’s outbreak advisory, CDC’s investigation page, and on the Marler Blog, Minnesota names Everything Sprouts and four different germs in one bag of alfalfa sprouts.
Recent Comments