Salmonella Outbreak From Idaho Broccoli Sprouts Hits 22 People in Four States, Third Such Incident for the Grower

Two separate sprout-related outbreaks are running at the same time in the United States, and federal health officials say they are not connected.

The first involves broccoli sprouts grown by Evergreen Fresh Sprouts, LLC of Moyie Springs, Idaho. The CDC and FDA both posted investigation updates on September 9, 2026, putting the case count at 22 people across four states: Idaho, Montana, Utah and Washington. Two people have been hospitalized. No deaths have been reported.

Illness onset dates range from July 7 to August 26, according to the CDC. Of 19 people interviewed by investigators, all 19 reported eating sprouts in the week before getting sick, and 17 specifically named broccoli sprouts. The strain is Salmonella Bovismorbificans.

The case count has moved fast. According to food-safety attorney Bill Marler's blog, the public number was 16 cases in three states just six days before the September 9 federal postings, with no recall in place. Washington's health department reported 13 in-state cases on September 2, Montana added its own cases the next day, and Montana's health department said it expected the count to rise once lab testing finished. It did.

The recall itself traces to a single piece of evidence: an unopened bag of broccoli sprouts pulled from a sick person's refrigerator in Montana. State officials collected and sequenced that sample, and it matched the outbreak strain. Evergreen Fresh Sprouts recalled broccoli sprouts sold in plastic bags and clamshell containers with expiration dates of 9/7, 9/9, 9/11, 9/14 and 9/16 on September 4, four days after Montana's finding, according to the FDA.

This is not Evergreen Fresh Sprouts' first brush with an outbreak. Newsweek reported the company's raw clover sprouts were linked to a multistate E. coli O121 outbreak in 2014, and cited Food Safety News in noting the company was also associated with a Salmonella investigation in 2011. That makes the current outbreak at least the third sprout-related illness event tied to the Idaho producer in roughly 15 years.

A Second, Larger Outbreak With No Recall

A separate outbreak involves alfalfa sprouts grown by a Minnesota company identified by CNN and the Washington Post as Everything Sprouts, and referred to in CDC and FDA materials as Everything Fresh Sprouts, LLC, selling under the Calco and Everything Sprouts brands. According to the Washington Post, the CDC issued a food safety alert warning people not to eat the sprouts after 55 people in 15 states fell ill, including cases in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, North Dakota, South Dakota and Washington. Four people were hospitalized.

CNN reported that of 34 sick people interviewed by investigators, 26 reported eating alfalfa sprouts. Unlike the Evergreen outbreak, this one involves multiple pathogens, both Salmonella and different strains of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, which the CDC says can cause acute kidney failure in severe cases.

As of the FDA's most recent public information, Everything Sprouts had not issued a recall. CNN reported the Associated Press left messages for the company seeking comment, without a response noted. CNN also reported that the FDA sent Everything Sprouts a warning letter the prior year, after inspections found a leaking roof dropping water onto bean sprouts and onto workers' smocks, among other concerns.

A reasonable industry defense: raw sprouts are a known high-risk food category regardless of grower, because the warm, wet conditions needed to germinate seeds are the same conditions that let bacteria multiply. The FDA has advised at-risk populations to avoid raw sprouts entirely for years. A documented prior warning letter about facility conditions, followed by an active multistate outbreak with no recall issued, raises questions about whether that warning letter led to any actual fix.

The FDA says its investigation into the alfalfa sprout outbreak is ongoing, and the CDC has confirmed the two outbreaks are unrelated. Consumers in Idaho, Montana, Utah and Washington are advised to discard or return any Evergreen Fresh Sprouts broccoli sprouts with the listed expiration dates. No comparable recall notice exists yet for Everything Sprouts' alfalfa product, meaning consumers in the 15 affected states are currently relying on a CDC advisory rather than a recall to know what to avoid.