Gardeners Basics of Spanish Fork, Utah has pulled its one-pound Waltham 29 Broccoli Sprouting Seeds from shelves nationwide, becoming the third brand caught up in a Salmonella Bovismorbificans outbreak that has sickened 32 people in six states and hospitalized three.

The recalled pouches carry UPC 848137042889 and are marked "Packed for 2027." Gardeners Basics distributed the seeds through Amazon, gardenersbasics.com, TikTok Shop, Walmart, eBay, and Etsy — a channel mix that puts product on prep-counter benches at home sprouters as well as in back-of-house sprouting trays at small operators who grow their own garnishes and microgreens.

For chefs sourcing live garnishes from in-house seed kits or third-party microgreen suppliers, the recall adds a new layer of vendor paperwork. Restaurants with documented seed-vendor traceback can answer an inspector's question in 30 seconds; those buying loose seed from Amazon or TikTok Shop now have to search recall notices across three brand names before they know whether their tray is implicated.

The FDA confirms it traced contamination to a single seed supplier via whole genome sequencing. A seed sample from that supplier tested positive for the same Salmonella Bovismorbificans strain making people sick, prompting the supplier to "conduct a recall of the implicated seed lot and contact their customers," according to the FDA.

What operators want to know

Who supplies the supplier? The FDA has refused to release that company's identity, even after multiple downstream brands recalled product linked to the same lot.

The earliest of the three recalls traced to this supplier came Oct. 2 from EAK Distribution of Casper, Wyoming, which pulled Home Grown green sprouting broccoli seeds after the supplier flagged lot #W4105. Five days later, Eden Brothers LLC of Arden, North Carolina recalled Calabrese broccoli seeds in 1-ounce and 1-pound packets (lots 1022067 and 1022068), also tied to supplier lot W4105.

Why the scope goes beyond raw seeds

The agency is also pursuing a parallel thread at Evergreen Fresh Sprouts LLC of Moyie Springs, Idaho. Washington state investigators found the company's alfalfa sprouts — grown sprouts, not seeds — contaminated with the same outbreak strain. Montana officials had already triggered a Sept. 4 broccoli sprout recall at Evergreen after state lab results came back positive.

Of 27 outbreak patients interviewed by Sept. 24, 26 reported eating sprouts or microgreens. That ratio matters for menu engineers who treat live garnishes as incidental plate decoration — in a Salmonella traceback, they become the suspect ingredient by default.

Geography and the undercount

The six reporting states — Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, Oregon, Utah, and Washington — form a contiguous block in the Interior West and Pacific Northwest, which tracks the regional distribution of sprouting-seed retailers and the Evergreen Fresh Sprouts customer base.

Patients reported symptom onset as late as Sept. 3. The CDC notes confirmed case counts typically capture just one of every 30 actual Salmonella infections — meaning an estimated 29 cases go undetected for every confirmed patient.

What operators should check

Does the supplier lot under recall feed any live garnish program now running? Are plated microgreens coming from a documented short-cycle grower, or a brand passing through one of the three recalled packagers? Until the FDA names the upstream supplier, downstream traceability depends on each brand's willingness to publish its own lot genealogy.

The agency has kept the supplier's identity confidential across at least three separate recall postings, even as its own outbreak page continues to update case counts and as additional downstream brands keep surfacing.