Health Law

Revisited: Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak linked to Alfalfa Sprouts

By Drew Falkenstein

From February through May of 2009, the CDC counted 235 confirmed victims of a Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak linked to alfalfa sprouts.  Here is the distribution of confirmed cases in the outbreak:

Nebraska was the hardest hit state by far, with 111 confirmed illnesses, many of whom consumed alfalfa sprouts on sandwiches from Jimmy John's restaurants.  South Dakota had the second most illnesses with 38. 

Investigating health authorities ultimately determined that sprout seeds distributed by a major seed distribution company called Caudill Seed (Louisville , KY) had been contaminated with Salmonella. 

The outbreak occurred in two phases.  The first phase, causing illness primarily in the midwest, occurred in February and March 2009, and the contaminated sprouts were grown by CW Sprouts, an Omaha Nebraska company.  The chlorine treatment methods used by CW Sprouts were inadequate to eliminate the bacteria from the contaminated seeds that Caudill Seed had distributed to CW. 

The second phase of the outbreak occurred shortly after the first, causing Salmonella infection by genetically indistinguishable bacteria from the CW Sprouts phase of the outbreak.  But CW Sprouts did not distribute to many of the states affected by the second phase.  The sprouts implicated in the second phase had been grown by multiple sprout growers from seeds produced and sold by Caudill Seed.  In fact, the seeds in both phases of this large outbreak came from the same lot (032) of Caudill's seeds.

Marler Clark represents nine people in this outbreak, mostly from the State of Nebraska.  Three lawsuits have been filed. 

Full post as published by Food Poison Blog on February 05, 2010 (boomark / email).