Cucumbers imported from Mexico were the source of a 2013 E.coli outbreak that sickened nine Jimmy John’s customers in the Denver area in 2013. It was the first time in the U.S. that an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak was linked to cucumbers.
The nine people who were sickened reported eating sandwiches containing cucumbers at three Denver-area Jimmy John’s shops in early October 2013. Lab tests revealed they were all sickened by the same strain of E.coli.
Health investigators say it’s likely that the cucumbers became contaminated before they arrived at the sandwich shop locations. That could mean that the cucumbers were contaminated during growing, harvest, transport, or distribution.
Salmonella is more often associated with cucumbers, such as the outbreak last year that sickened 275 people in 29 states between May and September. Those cucumbers were grown domestically.
