3 Grocery Chains Pull Sprouts After 41 Illnesses From One Farm

For grocery retailers, a recall tied to a fresh, high-rotation category like sprouts is a merchandising and trust problem, not just a food-safety one. Cub, Kowalski's and Jerry's all carried the Everything Sprouts and Calco brands now linked to 41 illnesses, forcing shelf-pulls and supplier scrutiny. With sprouts already viewed as high-risk produce, the category's shopper confidence — and the premium positioning of chains like Kowalski's — is on the line.

Minnesota and Wisconsin health officials have linked a 41-case foodborne outbreak to alfalfa sprouts produced by Everything Sprouts, a Minneapolis-based wholesale sprout and microgreen farm, in an unusual event that combines two distinct bacterial threats from a single source. The Minnesota Department of Health and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture announced on August 21, 2026 that 23 Minnesota residents and 18 Wisconsin residents had been sickened between July 8 and August 8, with two people hospitalized and additional cases expected as interviews and laboratory testing continue. The outbreak's defining feature is its microbiology: investigators identified one Salmonella serotype and three different strains of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC), and some patients were co-infected with both pathogens.

“

Cub, Kowalski's and Jerry's all carried the Everything Sprouts and Calco brands now linked to 41 illnesses, forcing shelf-pulls and supplier scrutiny.

Raw sprouts have been a recurring vehicle for foodborne illness for decades because the warm, humid conditions used to germinate seeds are nearly ideal for bacterial amplification, and sprouts are typically consumed raw. The FDA has long classified sprouts as high-risk produce and requires sprout operations to follow preventive controls under the Produce Safety Rule. A single-source outbreak involving two unrelated pathogens is atypical; it generally signals systemic sanitation and environmental-control failures rather than a one-off event such as a single contaminated seed lot.

The traceback is a textbook example of outbreak investigation intersecting with supply-chain forensics. Sick individuals reported eating sandwiches containing sprouts at various restaurants; investigators then reviewed supplier invoices to converge on Everything Sprouts as the common source. The affected product was distributed under both the Everything Sprouts and Calco labels to grocery chains including Cub, Kowalski's and Jerry's, as well as to restaurant operators, meaning the recall footprint spans retail and foodservice channels across at least two states.

The regulatory backstory compounds the severity. In March 2025, the FDA sent Everything Sprouts a warning letter after a 2024 inspection documented Produce Safety Rule violations, including roof leaks that allowed water to drip onto exposed sprouts. Documented sanitation deficiencies therefore preceded the July–August 2026 illness window by roughly 18 months, raising questions about remediation, follow-up inspection, and the pace of the regulatory response. For buyers, it also sharpens a supplier-qualification problem: a facility with an open FDA warning letter remained an active supplier to multiple grocers and restaurants.

Sprout-linked outbreaks carry real economic weight. Past sprout recalls have pushed national retailers to delist sprouts entirely and prompted foodservice chains to strip them from menus; the FDA's Sprout Safety Alliance and repeated guidance updates reflect an industry that has struggled to fully control the risk. Against that backdrop, a dual-pathogen event tied to a facility with a prior warning letter is likely to accelerate delisting decisions and push buyers toward treated seed sources, or away from raw sprouts altogether.