950 pounds of alfalfa sprouting seed were recalled after an outbreak traceback

Berlin Seeds of Millersburg, Ohio, has pulled 950 pounds of alfalfa sprouting seed from sale after its own supplier told the company that the seed had been traced to a sprout grower caught up in an FDA outbreak investigation. The recall covers a single lot, SAL2-24JB, and the company says one illness has been reported to it directly.

Sprouting seed is a quiet kind of product. It sits in a bag for months, then goes into a jar or a grower’s tray, where warmth and moisture wake it within days. Any bacteria riding on the seed wake with it, and they multiply in the same damp conditions that make the sprouts grow, which is why a contaminated seed lot can sicken people long after it leaves the supplier’s warehouse.

Lot SAL2-24JB and the Sizes That Carry It

In its recall notice, posted by the FDA on September 23, Berlin Seeds puts the recalled seed at 950 pounds. The lot code SAL2-24JB is printed in the bottom right-hand corner of the 5-pound and 50-pound packages. The quarter-pound, half-pound and one-pound bags carry no lot code at all, so a home sprouter holding one of those has only the brand, the product name and the purchase date to go on.

The seed was sold through the company’s retail store in Millersburg and its website, and the notice lists distribution to all 50 states. Packaging runs from resealable bags in quarter-pound, half-pound, one-pound and 5-pound sizes up to a 50-pound, non-resealable poly woven sack. A sale through a single storefront and a website is a narrow channel, but a website reaches every state at once, which explains why the notice lists all 50 states from Alaska to Wyoming and leaves no region out of the recall.

The Traceback and Its Limits

The notice explains the trigger in the company’s words: Berlin Seeds began the recall after its seed supplier notified it that the seeds were identified through traceback as seed used by a sprout grower whose finished sprouts were part of an FDA investigation involving a multistate foodborne illness outbreak. Separately, the notice reports that a sample of spent irrigation water tested positive for E. coli. Spent irrigation water is the water that has passed through the sprouting beds, so a positive result there points at the growing batch rather than at a finished product on a store shelf. That is the whole chain the notice describes, from outbreak to grower to seed supplier to Berlin.

It names no grower, no supplier and no outbreak. The pathogens it lists are Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, strains O26:H11, O103:H25 and O168:H8, plus Salmonella Agona. The wording is probabilistic, too: the seed has the potential to be contaminated with Shiga toxin-producing E. coli and/or Salmonella, and the notice reports no positive test on the Berlin lot itself. The recall rests on the traceback and on the one illness reported to the company, which is a precaution with a documented reason behind it rather than a finding about the contents of the bags.

Those organisms match an FDA investigation earlier this season. Food Poisoning Bulletin’s account of the Everything Sprouts outbreak counts 55 cases in 15 states and four hospitalizations, with the same three E. coli designations and one Salmonella strain, Agona. Food Safety News reported that the seed supplier in that case, International Sprout Holdings of Cookeville, Tennessee, recalled 43,799 pounds of alfalfa seed on August 23, after the FDA said the supplier had not acted on its recall recommendation. Berlin’s notice does not say it belongs to that outbreak, and the overlap in strain names is a match of labels, not a documented link between two seed lots.

Shiga-Toxin E. coli Versus Salmonella

The two kinds of bacteria in the notice cause different illnesses. The CDC’s E. coli overview warns that infection with Shiga toxin-producing strains can lead to hemolytic uremic syndrome, which can bring kidney failure, permanent health problems and death, and it names children under 5, adults 65 and older and people with weakened immune systems as higher-risk groups. For Salmonella, the agency’s higher-risk list is similar and adds adults 50 and older who have underlying medical problems.

Berlin Seeds tells buyers to stop using the seed immediately and not to sprout it, plant it or give it away, to seal it in trash bags and sanitize every surface it touched, and to call 877-464-0892 on weekdays with questions.

One illness reported to the company is a thin thread next to the larger outbreak behind the recall. The notice leaves open how many growers bought seed from this lot, and with lot codes printed only on the 5-pound and 50-pound packages, the buyers of the smaller bags are the hardest to reach.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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