Evergreen Fresh Sprouts LLC is pulling 215 cases of broccoli sprouts off shelves across the Pacific Northwest after federal health officials linked the product to a multistate salmonella outbreak that has sickened at least 22 people.
The company announced the recall Thursday after a third-party lab confirmed salmonella contamination in a batch of sprouts with a use-by date of 9/16/26, Fox Business reported. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recorded 22 salmonella cases spread across Idaho, Washington, Montana, and Utah, and the FDA is overseeing the recall.
Evergreen stopped producing and distributing broccoli sprouts on Sept. 4, two days after the last recalled shipments went out. The company said it is conducting a root cause investigation, but key details, including which retail stores carried the product and whether any of the 22 patients were hospitalized, remain unanswered.
The recalled sprouts were delivered to three distributors in Washington state between Aug. 24 and Sept. 2. From there, the product may have reached retail shelves in Idaho, Montana, and Washington. Utah is not listed as a distribution state, yet the CDC has logged salmonella cases there, raising questions about how far the contaminated sprouts actually traveled.
Each of the 215 recalled cases contains six four-ounce bags packaged in clear plastic zip-lock bags. The affected use-by dates are 9/7/26, 9/9/26, 9/11/26, 9/14/26, and 9/16/26, and the product carries UPC code 8 38796 00105 1. Consumers who still have the sprouts in their refrigerators should throw them away or return them immediately.
The CDC has also directed businesses not to sell or serve the recalled broccoli sprouts and to wash and sanitize any items or surfaces that may have come in contact with them.
Salmonella infections typically cause diarrhea, fever, and stomach cramps. The CDC advises anyone who ate the recalled sprouts to seek medical care if they develop a fever higher than 102 degrees Fahrenheit or diarrhea lasting more than two days without improvement.
As of Sept. 9, the multistate outbreak case count stood at 22. Neither the FDA nor the CDC has reported any deaths connected to the contaminated sprouts. Whether any of those 22 patients required hospitalization is not stated in the federal guidance so far.
Sprouts have long been a recurring vehicle for foodborne illness. The warm, humid conditions required to grow them are the same conditions salmonella thrives in. That basic biological fact puts a heavier burden on producers to test aggressively and catch contamination before product ships, not after two dozen people get sick.
Several gaps remain. Evergreen has not named the three Washington distributors that received the recalled batches. The company has not disclosed which specific retail stores sold the sprouts. And the identity of the third-party lab that detected salmonella, along with when that positive result was communicated to Evergreen, has not been made public.
It is also unclear whether the recall is voluntary or FDA-mandated, and whether any other Evergreen products beyond broccoli sprouts are affected. The company says it halted production on Sept. 4, but the first contaminated shipments went out eleven days earlier, on Aug. 24. That is a wide window.
Food safety is one of the most basic promises the regulatory system makes to consumers. When 22 people across four states fall ill from a single product, the public deserves fast, complete answers, not a slow-drip investigation conducted largely out of sight.