Broccoli Sprouting Seeds Recalled in the United States Over Salmonella, Linked to a Sprout Producer Under FDA Investigation

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published on October 7 and 8 the notices of two voluntary recalls of broccoli sprouting seeds over possible contamination with Salmonella. Both companies, online seed distributors, received the same message from their supplier: a lot of bulk broccoli seeds had been recalled because the FDA detected Salmonella in a sample it collected and analyzed. One of the notices specifies that the supplier notified it on September 26 and that no illness reports associated with that product had been received as of October 6.

The October 8 notice adds a relevant piece of information: the seeds in the lot were associated with a sprout producer whose product is part of an FDA investigation into a multistate outbreak, for which the agency maintains a notice page. The other recall, published on October 7, refers to that same investigation, although it does not by itself declare a connection to the cases. The seeds were sold online and shipped directly to consumers across the country, and sales have already stopped. The notices do not report illnesses linked to these specific products.

The recommendation for those who bought the seeds is not to plant them, sprout them, eat them or use them for microgreens, and not to eat sprouts grown from them. They should seal them in a bag and throw them away with household trash, not in compost, and wash their hands and clean the surfaces and containers that touched them. It is also advisable to notify anyone who received shared seeds. Salmonella can cause serious infections in young children, older adults and people with weakened defenses, and in healthy people it usually causes fever, headache, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea.

The case illustrates that, in outbreaks associated with sprouts, the risk begins in the seed: sprouting under warm and humid conditions multiplies the pathogens present, and washing does not eliminate them. To verify Salmonella spp., TAAG's Specio 1.1 kit, a real-time PCR with melting curve, is validated in a general way in foods and surfaces, but sprouting seeds are not a specific validated matrix, so this is an indirect relationship and would require validation.