Five people are sick in Wisconsin in the multistate Salmonella Montevideo outbreak that happened after consumers ate sprouts at Jimmy John’s restaurants in that state and Illinois. Two people are sick in Illinois, and one person is sick in Minnesota. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services is working with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, health departments, and the CDC to investigate this outbreak.
All five patients are sick with the outbreak strain of Salmonella. And all of those patients said they ate sprouts at a Jimmy John’s restaurant in the state in mid-to-late December, 2017. People who have been sickened by the same bacteria strain said they ate sprouts at Jimmy John’s locations in their state.
Officials are trying to identify the source of the sprouts that were supplied to the restaurants. They also are investigating if the sprouts were distributed to other facilities and locations.
DHS has asked the Jimmy John’s restaurants in Wisconsin to remove sprouts from their menus until this investigation is complete. In addition, officials are warning consumers not to eat sprouts from Jimmy John’s at this time. There are some news reports that state all Jimmy John’s restaurants around the country have removed sprouts from their menus.
The Wisconsin press release states, “sprouts are a known source of foodborne illness. To reduce the risk of getting sick from sprouts, they should be cooked before consumption, and people should request that raw sprouts not be added to food.” Bacteria can be inside the seeds, and the way this food is grown creates the perfect medium for bacterial growth.
The symptoms of salmonellosis include diarrhea that may be bloody, vomiting, nausea, ever, and stomach and abdominal cramps and pain. Most people get sick within 6 to 72 hours after ingesting the pathogen, but the illness can occur up to 10 days later.
If you ate sprouts at a Jimmy John’s restaurant in those states and have experienced these symptoms, see your doctor. Most people who contract this illness recover completely, but there are long term consequences of this infection. Later on, patients can develop high blood pressure, irritable bowel syndrome, and reactive arthritis.
Pritzker Hageman, America’s food safety law firm, successfully represents people harmed by adulterated food in outbreaks throughout the United States. The firm is located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Its lawyers have won hundreds of millions of dollars for survivors of foodborne illness, including the largest verdict in American history for a person harmed by E. coli and hemolytic uremic syndrome. The firm also publishes Food Poisoning Bulletin, a respected source for food safety news and information. Pritzker Hageman lawyers are regularly interviewed by major news outlets including the New York Times, CNN, and the Wall Street Journal. In addition, the firm represents people harmed by pathogenic microorganisms in Legionnaires‘ disease, surgical site infection and product liability cases.
