Should Sprouts Come With A Warning Label?

Source: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/02/25/468032778/should-sprouts-come-with-a-warning-label?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=thesalt

For something many deem a “health food,” sprouts regularly appear on official outbreak lists.

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You will never catch prominent food-safety attorney Bill Marler eating sprouts. Not on a heaping deli sandwich. Not on a freshly tossed salad. He puts them in the same category as raw milk — a food item he says is not worth the risk it carries. Unfortunately, 13 people sickened across four states have discovered that risk the hard way.

On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced they’re investigating a multi-state outbreak of Salmonella Muenchen linked to alfalfa sprouts produced by Sweetwater Farms LLC in Inman, Kan. Both irrigation water and alfalfa sprout samples have tested positive for salmonella, prompting the company to issue a voluntarily recall of sprouts from lot 042016. States affected include Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Pennsylvania.

And Wednesday, news broke of another outbreak linked to alfalfa sprouts. Nine people in Minnesota and Wisconsin have been sickened so far by E. coli-tainted sprouts. Health officials are warning consumers, retailers and restaurants to avoid sprouts grown by Jack & The Green Sprouts in…

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