Health Law

Sprouts and Foodborne Illness: The how and the why

By Marler Clark

It never ceases to amaze many clients of ours at Marler Clark how foods that seem so healthy can pose so much risk of foodborne disease.  Lettuce and E. coli O157:H7???  Many victims were shocked, not to mention badly injured, when baby spinach was the cause of yet another outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 and other pathogens associated with leafy greens during the 2006 spinach outbreak. 

Sprouts are another case in point.  We've all had them, and most of us have never been sick from them, but there are hundreds of victims across the mid-west who cannot say the same thing.  Here is an interesting article on how sprouts are grown and harvested, and why they are such a risky food to eat, especially for young children, the elderly, or the immune compromised. 

Full post as published by Food Poison Blog on April 16, 2009 (boomark / email).