FDA Has Counted Fifty-Two American Sprout Outbreaks Since 1996 and More Than 2,700 Illnesses. Here Is a Thirty-Year Chart of the Big Ones — Twenty-Seven Outbreaks on Four Continents, 14,325 Confirmed Sick and at Least 57 Dead. Here Is What the Experts Have Been Saying, in Their Own Words, Since 1998.

FDA’s own guidance to the sprout seed industry says the agency has observed 52 reported outbreaks of foodborne illness associated with contaminated sprouts in the United States between 1996 and 2020, together causing more than 2,700 illnesses. That is the floor, and it counts only one country. Pulling thirty years of the published record together — CDC...