Jimmy John’s restaurants remove Alfalfa Sprouts from menus nationwide, at least 88 confirmed sick in Salmonella outbreak

The man behind Jimmy John’s restaurants personally told his franchisees to remove Alfalfa Sprouts from their store’s menu because he believes it is linked to a widespread Salmonella outbreak.

According to an MSNBC.com report, Jimmy John Liautaud informed all franchisees of his restaurants Wednesday morning to remove the often-contaminated produce from their stores immediately.

Liautaud confirmed at least 88 people have contracted Salmonella poisoning in 15 states. Nearly half have been interviewed and of those, nearly three-quarters of them ate Alfalfa Spouts at one of his restaurants.

At least 46 of the 88 people involved in this current outbreak live in Illinois, where sick patrons of Jimmy John’s were first reported.

The owner added that its supplier of Alfalfa Sprouts recently underwent a safety inspection and Salmonella tests returned negative.

Liautaud said removing the product from his restaurants is a precautionary measure until an exact source of the outbreak is determined.

In the last two years very few Alfalfa Sprouts, especially those grown by national suppliers, stayed on the market.