Foodservice
Related story: Another sandwich restaurant chain drops sprouts.
(UPDATED COVERAGE, Feb. 27) An E. coli outbreak linked to sprouts served at the Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches chain has sickened 14 people in six states — about a year after the chain switched sprout varieties to guard against outbreaks.
Preliminary tests connect the illnesses to raw clover sprouts from Jimmy John’s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In December 2010, a salmonella outbreak affecting 112 people in 18 states was linked by the CDC to Tiny Greens alfalfa sprouts eaten at Jimmy John’s. The supplier in the recent E. coli outbreak was not named as of Feb. 16.
Within a few weeks of the salmonella outbreak, Jimmy John’s dropped alfalfa sprouts from its menu in favor of clover sprouts. Chain founder Jimmy John Liautaud said then that clover sprout seeds are more easily cleaned than alfalfa, reducing the risk of contamination.
But William Keene, senior epidemiologist at the Oregon Public Health Division, told The Packer at that time the company wouldn’t benefit from the switch.
“If Jimmy John’s switches to clover sprouts, we’ll start seeing a bunch of clover sprout outbreaks associated with Jimmy John’s,” Keene said in January 2011. “The problem is with sprouting, not whether it comes from this kind of seed or that kind of seed.”
In December 2011, Jimmy John’s pulled sprouts from its menu in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and two Missouri cities — Kansas City and Jefferson City.
That announcement came shortly after a recall of alfalfa and onion sprouts by Dallas-based Green Valley Food Corp. There has been a string of sprout-related recalls and outbreaks.
Jason’s Deli, citing health concerns, announced in January that it was dropping sprouts from menus nationwide through the end of 2012.
CDC officials said they were tracking illness reports to see if additional related cases emerge.
Five of the infected people are from Iowa, three from Missouri, two each from Kansas and Michigan and one each from Arkansas and Wisconsin. The strain is E. coli O26 — not the more common O157. The victims, all females and ranging in age from 9 to 49, became ill from Dec. 25 to Jan. 25. Two were hospitalized; there were no deaths.
Markets Editor Andy Nelson contributed to this article.
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Comments (2)
Leave a commentjohnny
Report Abusethank you needed for a speach! :p
Nicole Williams
Report AbuseIt would have been nice to read this before I ate at Jimmy John's last night! I got a severe case of food poisoning and have been sick since 7:00 this morning and it is now 12: 30 and I still can't even leave my room! Something seriously needs to be done about this food chain!