Don’t Eat Raw Alfalfa Sprouts

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Broccoli sprouts don’t have the food safety risks of alfalfa sprouts.

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Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we should cook alfalfa sprouts, because eating raw sprouts can lead to salmonella food poisoning. It’s especially important not to eat raw sprouts if you are particularly old or young, immunosuppressed, or pregnant. How serious of an issue is this?

Over the last few decades, at least 2,700 Americans have been sickened by sprouts. That’s more than a hundred people a year. Of course, during that same time more than a hundred thousand Americans were being food poisoned by eggs contaminated with Salmonella. Indeed, Salmonella in eggs is a national epidemic in the United States. And Salmonella is a gift that can keep on giving, triggering arthritis sometimes, which in rare cases can last a lifetime.

So, no sprouts on that sandwich, but do you hear the CDC saying no eggs, even though they cause a thousand times more illness? No, but the CDC does say no raw or runny eggs, no soft-boiled eggs, no sunny side up. Even the egg industry itself admits that over-easy, poached, sunny side up, or soft-boiled eggs can’t be considered safe. No wonder eggs are sickening 100,000 Americans a year! Eggs have to be cooked hard to kill off their bacteria. Similarly, if we boiled our sprouts, they would be safe, too, but no one wants do to that either.

The largest national sampling was from about a decade ago, when the Food and Drug Administration tested sprouts and sprout facilities from all over the United States. The agency found that 1 percent of alfalfa sprout samples were affected, and even worse, 10 percent of alfalfa sprout seed samples were, too. So that’s why you can’t just grow them yourself. The bacteria can get into the nooks and crannies of the alfalfa seed itself.

The majority of outbreaks have been linked to alfalfa, but there have also been outbreaks tied to clover sprouts, mung bean sprouts (which are more like typical bean sprouts), and sprouted chia. The national FDA survey did not find any salmonella in mung bean sprouts, but did find that about 2 percent were contaminated with Listeria, which can be a particularly devastating infection for pregnant women.

What about the deadly Jack in the Box E. coli O157:H7? How often can it be found in retail ground beef, sprouts, and mushrooms? Well, none were found in any mushrooms, but one out of every 90 or so samples of burger meat were contaminated, and about one out of just 70 sprout containers.

But what if you really like raw sprouts? Instead of alfalfa, use broccoli sprouts. They have smooth seeds, and after testing the equivalent of about five million packages, less than one in a thousand bulk samples turned up positive, and that may have been contamination from other types of spouts. Broccoli sprouts are easy and cheap to make on your own kitchen counter, like I do for pennies a serving. I have more than a dozen videos on all the amazing things the sulforaphane in broccoli sprouts can do––everything from treating autism spectrum disorder to detoxifying the effects of air pollution. They’ve also been shown to combat different types of cancer cells. And you can pretty much only get this natural immune system enhancer in cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, broccoli sprouts, and I guess if you’re really desperate, broccoli beer.

Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.

Motion graphics by Avo Media

Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we should cook alfalfa sprouts, because eating raw sprouts can lead to salmonella food poisoning. It’s especially important not to eat raw sprouts if you are particularly old or young, immunosuppressed, or pregnant. How serious of an issue is this?

Over the last few decades, at least 2,700 Americans have been sickened by sprouts. That’s more than a hundred people a year. Of course, during that same time more than a hundred thousand Americans were being food poisoned by eggs contaminated with Salmonella. Indeed, Salmonella in eggs is a national epidemic in the United States. And Salmonella is a gift that can keep on giving, triggering arthritis sometimes, which in rare cases can last a lifetime.

So, no sprouts on that sandwich, but do you hear the CDC saying no eggs, even though they cause a thousand times more illness? No, but the CDC does say no raw or runny eggs, no soft-boiled eggs, no sunny side up. Even the egg industry itself admits that over-easy, poached, sunny side up, or soft-boiled eggs can’t be considered safe. No wonder eggs are sickening 100,000 Americans a year! Eggs have to be cooked hard to kill off their bacteria. Similarly, if we boiled our sprouts, they would be safe, too, but no one wants do to that either.

The largest national sampling was from about a decade ago, when the Food and Drug Administration tested sprouts and sprout facilities from all over the United States. The agency found that 1 percent of alfalfa sprout samples were affected, and even worse, 10 percent of alfalfa sprout seed samples were, too. So that’s why you can’t just grow them yourself. The bacteria can get into the nooks and crannies of the alfalfa seed itself.

The majority of outbreaks have been linked to alfalfa, but there have also been outbreaks tied to clover sprouts, mung bean sprouts (which are more like typical bean sprouts), and sprouted chia. The national FDA survey did not find any salmonella in mung bean sprouts, but did find that about 2 percent were contaminated with Listeria, which can be a particularly devastating infection for pregnant women.

What about the deadly Jack in the Box E. coli O157:H7? How often can it be found in retail ground beef, sprouts, and mushrooms? Well, none were found in any mushrooms, but one out of every 90 or so samples of burger meat were contaminated, and about one out of just 70 sprout containers.

But what if you really like raw sprouts? Instead of alfalfa, use broccoli sprouts. They have smooth seeds, and after testing the equivalent of about five million packages, less than one in a thousand bulk samples turned up positive, and that may have been contamination from other types of spouts. Broccoli sprouts are easy and cheap to make on your own kitchen counter, like I do for pennies a serving. I have more than a dozen videos on all the amazing things the sulforaphane in broccoli sprouts can do––everything from treating autism spectrum disorder to detoxifying the effects of air pollution. They’ve also been shown to combat different types of cancer cells. And you can pretty much only get this natural immune system enhancer in cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, broccoli sprouts, and I guess if you’re really desperate, broccoli beer.

Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.

Motion graphics by Avo Media

Doctor's Note

This is the video I mentioned: Biggest Nutrition Bang for Your Buck. 

For more on foodborne illnesses, see:

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