Dive Brief:

• State health officials in Oregon and Washington have linked an outbreak of E. coli to sprouts served at area restaurants. 
• The owner of Evergreen Fresh Sprouts LLC, which supplied the sprouts, says his product is not contaminated and has declined to issue a recall until regulators provide "proof." 
• The company has ceased production and shipping while the investigation continues. 

Dive Insight:

Evergreen Fresh Sprouts shipped some 30,000 pounds of sprouts during the 15-day time period that investigators suspect the contamination occurred. But owner David Scharf says his product was inspected according to federal regulations and that nothing was wrong when the vegetables were shipped.

Certainly it's possible that the contamination took place at the restaurants where the sprouts were served. But a number of restaurants in different chains have been linked to the outbreak.

We'll be curious to see how regulators handle this case -- particularly what they present as "proof" and whether or not Scharf accepts it and issues a recall.