Salmonella outbreak in cucumbers expands to 18 states, 45 sickened

A salmonella outbreak traced to a Florida-based cucumber producer has expanded to include 45 people reporting illness in 18 states, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Friday.

Target stores joined a growing list of retailers that sold recalled cucumbers or ready-to-eat products featuring the fruit, and it’s warning that purchasers should throw them away.

The retailer issued a list of recalled products, including a Greek-style chicken salad from Boar’s Head and several types of sushi restaurant staples, such as maki rolls with tempura and California rolls, all sold under the Mai brand.

Last week, grocery store chain Walmart was added to the list of retailers urging customers to put the possibly tainted products in the trash, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; its Marketside cucumber slices are a part of the recall.

Patients connected to the outbreak have turned up in Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, the FDA said on Friday.

Of 45 people who have reported illness connected to the outbreak, 16 have been hospitalized, the agency said. No deaths have been reported.

While investigators’ focus has been on the strain salmonella montevideo, multiple other strains were detected in samples taken from a Pennsylvania distribution center belonging to Florida-based Bedner Growers, believed to be a source, the FDA said in its Friday statement.

The FDA said that those different strains so far appear to be unrelated to the spring outbreak, but that it is investigating further alongside scientists from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“CDC is working to determine if additional human illnesses match these additional strains,” the FDA said. “Further analysis of the sample is pending.”

All the illnesses so far have been connected to cucumbers produced by Bedner and distributed by Fresh Start Produce Sales, the agency said. The cucumbers and products that contained them were sold from April 29 to May 19, the FDA said.

The first retailers noted for selling the potentially tainted cucumbers were three Bedner’s Farm Fresh Market locations in Florida, but the list of public-facing sellers has continued to increase.

Other distributors as well as eateries were told they may have also purchased the possibly tainted cucumbers, labeled for wholesale as “supers,” “selects,” or “plains,” the FDA said.

FDA inspectors unearthed tainted cucumbers during an inspection last month of Bedner Growers’ facilities, it said. The review was a follow-up to a Salmonella Africana outbreak linked to the producer last year, according to the agency.

Bedner’s did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Friday. A spokesperson for Fresh Start Produce Sales said last week that the company “is committed to protecting public health and helping Bedner Growers with its recall.”

Salmonella is a bacterium that can thrive amid animals and their fecal matter and contaminate nearby produce, which can reach the dinner table if unwashed, according to the FDA and CDC.

Older people, children under 5, and those with compromised immune systems are particularly susceptible to the salmonella’s worst symptoms and even death. Patients sickened by it can develop stomach cramps, diarrhea, nausea and the urge to vomit anywhere from six hours to six days after infection, the CDC says.

Salmonella is “a leading cause of foodborne illness, hospitalizations, and deaths in the United States and worldwide,” the CDC states.