Sprouts might be linked to small salmonella outbreak, FDA says
Sprouts, again. The Food and Drug Administration announced Monday that consumers should avoid eating alfalfa sprouts or spicy sprouts from Evergreen Produce amid concerns that the vegetables are linked to a small salmonella outbreak in the U.S.
Twenty cases of salmonella, including one hospitalization, might be linked to these sprouts in Idaho, Montana, New Jersey, North Dakota and Washington, the agency said.
The alfalfa sprouts come in 4-ounce, 16-ounce (1-pound) and 5-pound plastic bags. The spicy kind come in 4-ounce and 1-pound bags, the agency said in a release Monday.
If it seems as if sprouts seem to be contaminated with salmonella and E. coli with alarming frequency, well, that’s because they are. Beyond the recent German E. coli outbreak for which they’ve been blamed, in the last 15 years, at least 30 outbreaks of foodborne illness have been traced back to sprouts, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The warm, wet growing conditions of the crunchy vegetable make them hospitable for salmonella or E. coli.
It’s enough to make a health-conscious person wonder if sprouts are really worth it.
In this Chicago Tribune article, a CDC official had this to say about the risk of eating sprouts:
“They can be part of a very healthy diet, potentially,” said Christopher R. Braden, acting director of foodborne, waterborne and environmental diseases at the CDC. “However sprouts are not a huge [crop] and yet we have seen quite a number of outbreaks in them. So I think there is more work that needs to be done in order to try and make sprouts safe.”
The FDA advises in its most recent statement:
“To reduce the chance of foodborne illness, FDA advises consumers to cook sprouts thoroughly and to request raw sprouts not be added to your food.”
Cooked sprouts may lack that satisfying crunch, of course.
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