Dive Brief:
- Investigators for the Food and Drug Administration say they found numerous sanitation problems at the Idaho sprouts grower linked to an E. coli outbreak, which sickened nine people at seven restaurants.
- Among the problems uncovered at Evergreen Fresh Sprouts: Workers using scratched and chipped tennis rackets and rusty pitchforks to move sprouts, and rusty and leaky water valves located above food storage areas.
- David Scharf, owner of Evergreen, says there is no evidence his company is the source of the outbreak.
Dive Insight:
When news of the outbreak hit last month, and the initial investigation pointed toward Evergreen, Scharf declined to issue a recall saying there was no evidence his company was at fault.
As it turns out, the company has a history of being tied to disease outbreaks and then not issuing recalls.
We may never know with 100 percent certainty where the E. coli outbreak originated. But it's clear that conditions at Evergreen were not what they should have been.
