Forty-one people are sick in Minnesota and Wisconsin, two have been hospitalized, and health officials say the count will rise.
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn., August 20, 2026 — Marler Clark, The Food Safety Law Firm, is investigating a multistate outbreak of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) and Salmonella infections that the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) and Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) have linked to alfalfa sprouts grown by Everything Sprouts, a Minnesota grower, and sold under the Everything Sprouts and Calco brand names.
According to MDH, 23 Minnesotans became ill between July 8 and August 8, 2026 with Salmonella, various strains of STEC, or both. Two people have been hospitalized. No deaths have been reported. Wisconsin investigators have identified 18 additional cases, and illnesses have been reported in other states. MDH and MDA are working with Wisconsin health officials, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to determine the source and scope of the contamination. Both agencies expect the number of illnesses to grow as the investigation continues.
The sprouts were sold to restaurants and to grocery stores. Health officials are telling consumers to check their refrigerators for alfalfa sprouts sold under the Calco or Everything Sprouts brands, not to eat them, and to throw them away.
What Marler Clark is examining
Marler Clark’s investigation is directed at how these sprouts were grown and sold: where Everything Sprouts obtained its seed and how that seed was treated, whether spent irrigation water was tested on every batch as FDA guidance recommends, how the product moved to restaurants and grocery stores under two different brand names, and the company’s regulatory and inspection history.
“Sprouts have been sickening people the same way since the 1990s, and the industry has had FDA’s guidance on how to prevent it since 1999,” said William Marler, managing partner of Marler Clark. “Twenty-three people in Minnesota and eighteen in Wisconsin in a single month is not bad luck. It is a product sold to be eaten raw, grown in conditions that are ideal for bacteria, with no step anywhere in the process that kills what is on the seed.”
“The two brand names matter,” Marler said. “A family who bought a Calco clamshell has no way of knowing who grew what is inside it, and a person who got sprouts on a sandwich never saw a label at all. When people cannot identify what made them sick, they do not get tested, and they do not get counted.”
“Forty-one is a floor, not a total,” Marler said. “That number counts the people who were sick enough to see a doctor, whose doctor ordered the right test. Everyone who rode it out at home is invisible. Both states say the count will rise, and it will.”
Symptoms and what to do
STEC infections usually begin two to five days after exposure, though onset can range from one to eight days. Symptoms typically include severe stomach cramps and diarrhea, often bloody, with a low-grade fever or no fever at all. Most people recover in five to seven days. In some patients, particularly young children and the elderly, STEC infection progresses to hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a life-threatening complication involving acute kidney failure.
Diarrhea caused by a STEC infection generally should not be treated with antibiotics, which can increase the risk of HUS. Anyone who develops bloody diarrhea should contact a healthcare provider and tell them they ate sprouts.
Salmonella infections cause diarrhea, abdominal pain and fever, usually beginning within 12 to 96 hours of exposure but sometimes as long as two weeks afterward. Infections generally clear in five to seven days. About 28 percent of laboratory-confirmed cases require hospitalization.
Marler Clark’s experience with sprout outbreaks
The firm has litigated foodborne illness cases arising from sprouts, romaine lettuce, spinach, ground beef, raw milk, cantaloupe, deli meat and infant formula, and has brought cases against companies including Jack in the Box, Dole, ConAgra, Cargill, Chipotle, Jimmy John’s and Taylor Farms.
Anyone who ate alfalfa sprouts and became ill in July or August 2026 — particularly anyone who was hospitalized, and any parent whose child developed HUS — is encouraged to contact Marler Clark for a free consultation.
About Marler Clark
Marler Clark, The Food Safety Law Firm, is the nation’s leading law firm representing victims of foodborne illness. The firm has represented thousands of individuals in claims against food companies whose contaminated products have caused serious injury and death. William Marler began representing victims of foodborne illness in 1993, when he represented Brianne Kiner, the most seriously injured survivor of the Jack in the Box E. coli O157:H7 outbreak. He founded Food Safety News in 2009, and his work is the subject of the book and Emmy Award-winning Netflix documentary Poisoned.
Media Contact
William D. Marler
Managing Partner, Marler Clark, Inc., PS
180 Olympic Drive S.E., Bainbridge Island, WA 98110
1-800-884-9840
bmarler@marlerclark.com
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