Warning letter to Sprouts Unlimited on after outbreak related to Jimmy John’s

The FDA sent a warning letter to Sprouts Unlimited Inc. explaining how Sprout Unlimited (the Jimmy John’s supplier) has failed to respond to the contamination that eventually resulted in the 2019 outbreak with Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O103 in Iowa. The outbreak sickened 22 people between November 21 and December 14, 2019. During our December 31, 2019, to January 9, 2020, inspection, FDA investigators documented numerous serious violations of the Standards for the growing, harvesting, packing, and holding of produce for human consumption. Epidemiological and traceback data support the conclusion that clover sprouts grown and distributed by Sprouts Unlimited were the source of this outbreak of E. coli O103. Based on a traceback investigation, ill persons reported the source or likely source of their sprout exposures in JJ restaurants.   The company did not test spent sprout irrigation water (SSIW) from each production batch of sprouts for E. coli O157: H7 and Salmonella, as required by federal law, and did not take steps to hold all products from entering commerce. Sprouts Unlimited did not take corrective action when environmental samples in the growing, harvesting, packing, or holding areas tested positive for Listeria species or Listeria monocytogenes. @ https://www.fda.gov/inspections-compliance-enforcement-and-criminal-investigations/warning-letters/sprouts-unlimited-inc-603883-02212020