Two separate sprout outbreaks are under investigation in the United States right now, and Salmonella is in both of them. Sixteen people in Washington, Montana and Idaho are sick with Salmonella Bovismorbificans after eating broccoli sprouts grown by Evergreen Fresh Sprouts, LLC of Moyie Springs, Idaho. Fifty-five people in fifteen states are sick with Salmonella Agona or one of three strains of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli after eating alfalfa sprouts grown by Everything Sprouts, LLC of Minneapolis. These are two different companies, two different seeds and two different investigations. What they share is where the contamination almost certainly started, and what neither one has yet is a full accounting of where the product went.
Sixteen people are sick from Evergreen Fresh Sprouts broccoli sprouts, and there is still no recall
The Washington State Department of Health posted its outbreak notice on September 2, 2026. Thirteen Washington residents are confirmed with Salmonella Bovismorbificans, with illness onsets running from July 7 through August 18. Two have been hospitalized and no one has died. Of the twelve people investigators were able to interview, eight reported eating sprouts from Evergreen Fresh Sprouts and seven specifically recalled broccoli sprouts. The sprouts were bought at grocery stores and food co-ops and served in restaurants.
Three more people carrying the same strain are counted outside Washington, two in Montana and one in Idaho, for sixteen in all. Montana’s Department of Public Health and Human Services said on September 3 that it expects its own count to rise as additional laboratory testing is finished, and that local sanitarians are contacting stores known to have sold the sprouts so the product can be pulled. Samples from Evergreen and from other suppliers are being tested at the state public health laboratories.
| Washington county of residence | Cases |
| King | 4 |
| Skagit | 1 |
| Snohomish | 1 |
| Spokane | 2 |
| Walla Walla | 1 |
| Whatcom | 3 |
| Yakima | 1 |
| Total | 13 |
Washington cases by county of residence as of September 2, 2026 (4 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 3 + 1 = 13). Source: Washington State Department of Health.
Washington’s own summary lists the recall status in a single word: no. Without a recall there are no lot numbers, no best-by dates, no package photographs and no list of stores. The brand name is the only thing a shopper has to go on, and sprouts scooped from a co-op bulk case may not carry one at all. Food Safety Newsreported no recall as of September 3, and none had issued as of this writing.
This is the third Evergreen outbreak in fifteen years
The company name should be familiar. Evergreen was the grower behind a 2011 Salmonella Enteritidis outbreak that sickened twenty-five people in five states, and a 2014 E. coli O121 outbreak that sickened nineteen in six. Across three outbreaks, sixty people have been made sick, and the company has recalled product exactly once, in 2011, after first declining to do so and after FDA took the unusual step of warning the public directly. I laid out that record on Marler Blog on September 3.
Fifty-five people are sick from Everything Sprouts alfalfa sprouts, and the seed supplier has not answered FDA
The other outbreak is the larger one. FDA’s advisory and CDC’s investigation page put it at fifty-five people in fifteen states, four hospitalized, none dead, with onsets from May 31 through August 8. Forty-six were infected with E. coli, seven with Salmonella Agona and two with both. Everything Sprouts recalled its Calco and Everything Sprouts alfalfa sprouts on August 22 and expanded the recall on August 28 to its Robust Radish Sprout Mix.
On August 31 FDA said something more important than the recall expansion. Everything Sprouts alfalfa is one of the sources of illness in this outbreak, but those sprouts do not explain all the illnesses. Traceback found at least one additional sprout grower that received and used the same lot of alfalfa seed from a common seed supplier. FDA recommended that the supplier recall the seed lot and tell its downstream customers to recall the sprouts grown from it. As of FDA’s most recent update, the supplier has not responded to that recommendation, has not sent a recall notice to its customers, and has not instructed the growers who bought the seed to recall anything. Neither the seed supplier nor the second grower has been named publicly. That is where this one stands.
One of these outbreaks is on FDA’s public list. The other is not.
FDA’s table of active outbreak investigations, last modified September 2, carries sixteen active investigations. The alfalfa outbreak is one of them, listed as reference number 1394 with its own advisory attached. There is no row for Salmonella Bovismorbificans and no row for broccoli sprouts. CDC has posted a full investigation page for the alfalfa outbreak and nothing at all on the broccoli one. Phyllis Entis noted the same absence at eFoodAlert on September 4.
In fairness to the agencies, FDA’s table covers investigations its CORE teams are managing, and CDC posts notices for a subset of outbreaks rather than all of them. A three-state outbreak that state epidemiologists have already solved may not need a federal notice to be worked. But three states have now named a company and a product in public, and a consumer who goes looking for confirmation on a federal website will find nothing there. Credit where it belongs: the state and local epidemiologists in Washington, Montana and Idaho found this link and said so.
Both of these outbreaks point back toward seed
Sprouts are grown from seed in warm, humid water over several days. Those are the conditions a grower needs, and they are also the conditions a pathogen needs. A small amount of contamination on the seed can multiply to a dangerous level in the finished product even in a clean facility, which is why sprouts have caused outbreaks for thirty years in operations that pass inspection. It is also why a single seed lot can produce illnesses scattered across states, and, as FDA has now confirmed in the alfalfa outbreak, across more than one company.
The broccoli sprout investigation has not publicly reached the seed yet. What is already clear from FDA’s own records is that sprouts keep coming back: the same table that carries the alfalfa outbreak today lists a closed 2024 E. coli O26:H11 sprout outbreak, a closed 2025 Salmonella Oranienburg sprout outbreak and a closed 2025 Salmonella Anatum outbreak in sprouted beans. Seed treatment and testing of spent irrigation water are the two controls that decide whether that pattern continues.
What to do right now
Do not eat broccoli sprouts from Evergreen Fresh Sprouts, LLC. Throw them away or return them to the store. Because there is no recall, there are no lot codes to check, so treat the brand itself as the identifier, and if you bought loose sprouts from a co-op or ate them on a sandwich or salad, ask where they came from.
Do not eat the recalled Everything Sprouts and Calco products, which include the 5-ounce alfalfa sprout containers in lots 222, 223, 225, 226 and 230, the Crunchy Protein Sprout Mix and Zesty Garlic Mix cups made with the same sprouts, and the Robust Radish Sprout Mix cups in lots 223, 226, 230 and 233. Wash and sanitize anything the sprouts touched, including refrigerator drawers and cutting boards.
If you are pregnant, over sixty-five, under five, or living with a condition that weakens your immune system, the sensible course while a seed lot is still unaccounted for is to skip raw sprouts of any kind. Cooking them through kills the bacteria.
If you are already sick, see a doctor and ask for a stool culture, then ask the laboratory or your health department to preserve the isolate. Whole genome sequencing of that isolate is what connects one person’s illness to an outbreak strain, and isolates are routinely discarded. Keep the package, the receipt, or a photograph of either.
Salmonella
Salmonella is the leading cause of hospitalizations and deaths from foodborne illness in the United States. Most people recover in a week, but the infection can put people in the hospital, and it can leave lasting problems behind, including reactive arthritis and irritable bowel syndrome.
Marler Clark, The Food Safety Law Firm, is the nation’s leading law firm representing victims of Salmonellaoutbreaks. The firm has represented thousands of people in Salmonella cases and has recovered over $850 million for clients. Our lawyers have brought Salmonella cases involving sprouts, eggs, chicken, ground turkey, peanut butter, cantaloupe, cucumbers, onions, papaya, mangoes, flour, cereal and pet food, against defendants including Cargill, ConAgra, Foster Farms, Chipotle, Taco Bell and Peanut Corporation of America. The PCA prosecution ended in criminal convictions and a twenty-eight-year sentence for the company’s owner. We continue to push FDA and USDA to treat outbreak strains of Salmonella as adulterants.
If you or a family member became ill after eating sprouts, contact us for a free case evaluation or call 1-800-884-9840. There is no charge to talk with us.
Additional resources
About Salmonella · Marler Clark Salmonella Lawsuits and Litigation · Downloadable Salmonella Fact Sheet
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