E. coli O145:H28 is a Shiga toxin–producing E. coli — a STEC, in the shorthand. The number-and-letter name is just how microbiologists fingerprint the bug: “O145” describes the sugar coat on the outside of the cell, and “H28” describes its flagella, the little whip it swims with. Put them together and you have one specific, well-defined strain.

And O145 is not some obscure oddball. It is one of the “Big Six” non-O157 STECs — O26, O45, O103, O111, O121, and O145 — that the USDA finally declared illegal adulterants in raw beef back in 2011 and 2012. And O145 did not land on that list by accident — I put it there. In 2009, my firm petitioned the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service to declare these six non-O157 strains adulterants in ground beef, just as O157:H7 already was. FSIS agreed, and the ban took effect in 2012. In plain English, the government put O145 in the same legal category as the O157 that nearly killed Brianne Kiner in the Jack-in-the -Box outbreak all those years ago. It belongs there.

Here is the part people gloss over. STEC bacteria make Shiga toxins, and Shiga toxins are vicious. They shut down protein production inside your cells, and they have a particular appetite for the lining of the tiny blood vessels in your kidneys. The result, in the worst cases, is hemolytic uremic syndrome — HUS — which is a fancy medical name for kidney failure. It hits hardest in the people least able to withstand it: young children, the elderly, and anyone with a weakened immune system.

The illness usually starts three or four days after exposure with cramps and diarrhea, then often turns bloody within a day or two. It typically comes without much fever, which is exactly why it gets mistaken for something else. And O145:H28 is not gentle. In a British outbreak tied to unpasteurized cheese, two-thirds of the victims had bloody diarrhea and nearly half of them ended up in the hospital. 

Like its O157 cousin, O145:H28 lives in the guts of cattle and other ruminants, which carry it without getting sick and shed it in their manure. From there it gets into our food the usual ways: undercooked beef, raw milk and raw-milk cheese, and fresh produce contaminated out in the field by irrigation water, runoff, or manure. That British cheese outbreak was traced right back to the cows — investigators found the exact outbreak strain in cattle at the dairy that made the cheese.

Wash your lettuce all you want; that will not save you from contamination that got in at the farm. And freezing does not kill this bug either — which brings me to the blueberries.

On July 3rd, a Chilean grower-packer recalled its ten-ounce bags of GreenWise Organic frozen blueberries — the Publix store brand — after they tested presumptively positive for E. coli O145:H28. The berries went to Publix stores in eight states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. It is a single lot, code 6040 01, with a Best By date of February 9, 2028.

Twelve people got sick between May 11th and June 5th. Florida’s health department was the one that connected the dots and pointed at the blueberries, and Publix pulled them from its shelves. To its credit, the FDA has now put the outbreak on its public list. But I will be honest about what bothered me from the start: for days, the only case count anyone could find came from the company doing the recalling — not from a health agency. When the people whose job it is to warn the public go quiet, families in eight states are left guessing whether the bag in their freezer is the one that will send their child to the hospital.

O145:H28 outbreaks have a bad habit of never getting solved.

Here is the whole record, going back more than a quarter century — and notice how often the trail simply goes cold:

1999 — Minnesota. Two children at a day care passed it back and forth. One of the earliest O145 clusters anyone in this country bothered to write down.

2005 — Oregon. Campers at Camp Yamhill got sick from drinking water fouled after heavy rain, carrying a mix of bugs — O157:H7, Campylobacter, and O145.

2007 — Belgium. Farm-made ice cream at two birthday parties carried O145 and O26 together. The same strains showed up in the farm’s calves and its soiled straw; the pasteurizing was fine, so a farmhand most likely recontaminated it after the fact.

2010 — Freshway Foods romaine lettuce. The first documented U.S. foodborne O145 outbreak. Thirty-three people across five states — Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and New York — a lot of them college students. Twelve were hospitalized, three with HUS. An unopened bag of the shredded romaine tested positive, and the trail ran back to a farm in Yuma, Arizona. Solved.

2010 — Minnesota venison. High school students who handled and ate undercooked wild deer in a class picked up a mix of non-O157 strains, O145 among them.

2010 — Zillman Meat Market, Wisconsin. Smoked game-meat products out of a Wausau meat market sickened people in Wisconsin and Michigan who had shared them around.

2012 — Nine states. Eighteen people, from Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Tennessee, and Virginia. Four hospitalized. One dead, in Louisiana. Source: never identified. Case closed.

2023 — United Kingdom. Thirty-six people, many of whom had eaten unpasteurized cheese served in first-class train dining. Investigators ran it back to dairy cattle and found the outbreak strain in the herd. Solved.

In 2024, an O145:H28 cluster in this country sickened eight people. Source: never identified. Case closed.

In the spring of 2025, another O145:H28 cluster hit eleven people. Three were hospitalized. One developed HUS. One died. Source: never identified. Case closed.

Across the Atlantic in 2024, a national O145:H28 outbreak in the United Kingdom grew to nearly three hundred cases, with eleven cases of HUS and two deaths — and British investigators actually ran it to ground. It was lettuce.

The very same strain that just turned up in frozen blueberries has killed people in outbreaks our own agencies gave up on. An “unsolved” outbreak is not a victimless one. It is simply an outbreak where the traceback ran out of road before anyone had to answer for it. And it raises a question the FDA and CDC ought to be chasing right now: does this Chilean blueberry lot explain one of those earlier clusters they quietly closed as “not identified”? That is exactly what whole genome sequencing and a real traceback are for. Somebody should be asking.

If there is one sentence every family kept taped to the freezer door, it is this: when in doubt, throw it out. I honestly do not know who coined the phrase. But whoever it was understood something a lot of companies still don’t: a bag of contaminated food is never worth a child’s kidneys.

On July 3, 2026, Frutas y Hortalizas del Sur S.A. of San Carlos, Chile — the supplier behind Publix’s store brand — recalled frozen GreenWise Organic IQF Blueberries in 10-ounce packages after they were linked to an outbreak of E. coli O145:H28. The FDA and CDC posted their advisories on July 6 and 7. As it stands, twelve people across Florida and Georgia have been confirmed sick, and four of them have been hospitalized. Illnesses began between May 11 and June 5, 2026. No deaths — yet — but four hospitalizations out of twelve does not describe a bad stomachache. Some of these people were seriously ill.

The trail started in Florida. On July 1, the Florida Department of Health flagged a cluster of E. coli O145 illnesses, and interviews with sick people pointed straight at frozen GreenWise-brand organic blueberries sold at Publix. Publix pulled the product from its shelves, and the Chilean supplier followed with a recall two days later.

If you have GreenWise Organic frozen blueberries at home, here is exactly what to look for:

  • Product: Frozen GreenWise Organic IQF Blueberries, 10 oz
  • Lot Code: 60401
  • Best By: February 9, 2028

The recalled berries went to Publix stores in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia — and the FDA has been clear the product may have traveled farther. If you have it, do not eat it. Throw it out or take it back for a refund. And if you dumped a bag into an unmarked freezer container months ago and can’t tell whether it is part of this lot — throw that out too. When in doubt, throw it out.

Let me knock down the single most dangerous myth about a recall like this. Freezing does not kill E. coli. It never has. Freezing just puts the bacteria to sleep. The moment those berries thaw in a smoothie or on your kids’ cereal, the bug wakes up right where it left off. “Organic” doesn’t kill it either. This is a raw agricultural product — picked in a field, frozen at harvest, and shipped across a hemisphere carrying whatever was on it the day it was packed.

Now, about the strain. You will see this outbreak written up as E. coli O145:H28, and some folks will quietly file it away as a lesser cousin of the E. coli O157:H7 that made headlines in 1993 and nearly every year since. Do not make that mistake.

O145 and O157 are both Shiga toxin-producing E. coli — STEC. The O-number and H-number are just labels for markers on the surface of the bug. What actually hurts you is the Shiga toxin, and O145 produces the very same poison as O157. It causes the same bloody diarrhea, the same brutal cramps, and the same risk of hemolytic uremic syndrome — HUS — the kind of kidney failure that puts small children on dialysis and can leave damage that lasts a lifetime. O145 is one of the “big six” non-O157 STEC serogroups the CDC tracks for exactly that reason: because they are dangerous.

If anything, O145 deserves more of our vigilance, not less — because for years it was easy to miss. The old workhorse lab test for E. coli was built to catch O157 and would sail right past O145 unless a laboratory went looking for Shiga toxin directly. That is why the non-O157 strains have long been under-diagnosed and under-counted. Twelve confirmed cases is almost certainly the floor, not the ceiling. For every case pinned down by a stool culture and matched by whole-genome sequencing, there are more people who got sick, rode it out at home, and were never tested. That is what these outbreaks always look like — the tip of the iceberg.

To a child in a hospital bed, there is no such thing as a “less serious” E. coli. The toxin does not stop to check its own serotype before it goes after the kidneys.

The illnesses started back on May 11. The recall did not come until July 3 — nearly two months later. That is two months of contaminated blueberries sitting in freezers, going into breakfasts and smoothies, while the outbreak quietly built until Florida’s health department connected the dots. That lag is not unusual. That lag is the problem.

When in doubt, throw it out — the saying has no known author — it’s been public-health folk wisdom since at least the 1920s, and fittingly, its earliest known appearance was a warning about botulism.

Over at USA TODAY health reporter Mary Walrath-Holdridge asked a simple, sensible question: which states have the most cases of the “explosive diarrhea” parasite going around this summer? 

It is exactly the question a worried parent, a restaurant owner, or a public-health nurse would type into a search bar. And it is a question the country’s official outbreak map — the CDC’s Cyclosporiasis Surveillance page — cannot honestly answer right now.

Here is the problem: the federal map says 145 cases in 17 states. The state health departments feeding that map are, as of this morning, describing something closer to ten times that number. Both numbers are “official.” Only one of them is current.

Pull up the CDC surveillance page and you will see a shaded map of the United States. As of its last review on June 18, 2026, the CDC had logged 145 domestically acquired cases across 17 states, for people who got sick between May 1 and June 16. Twenty of them were hospitalized. No deaths. Add another 45 travel-associated cases and you get 190 total.

Two things about that map deserve a hard look. First, it carries no per-state numbers at all — it just colors a state in or leaves it white. If you want to know whether “most” cases are in New York or Texas, the map won’t tell you. Second, and more important, the map is frozen in mid-June. It does not include Michigan. It was last touched before the biggest cluster of the year even became public.

The CDC map (as of June 18, 2026)What the states are reporting (as of July 7, 2026)
145cases · 17 states · 20 hospitalized · 0 deathsIllness onset May 1 – June 16. Excludes Michigan. No per-state counts published.1,250+reported by state health departments; Michigan alone 700+ (38 hospitalized)A conservative floor, and almost certainly an undercount.

When you skip the map and call the states directly — which is what the reporters chasing this story have been doing — a very different picture emerges. These are the numbers state health departments have put on the record over the past week:

StateState-reportedAs ofNotes / source
Michigan700+Jul 7Since June 22; 38 hospitalized. State averages ~50/yr. (MDHHS)
Ohio177Jul 2171 of them since late June. (Ohio Dept. of Health)
Illinois141Jul 7“Higher than average.” (IDPH, via NBC News)
New York120Jul 7Since May 1 (112 outside NYC). Typical year: 500–700. (NYSDOH)
North Carolina110Jul 2Since early June; mostly Wake County. (NCDHHS)
Texasnot released—Among the highest in the CDC’s own count; cluster under investigation.
Pennsylvanianot released—Reports voluntarily; active cluster. (CDC/CNN)

And that is before you count the additional clusters and case reports federal and state officials have named: Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. The illness has now been tied to more than a dozen states — and the CDC itself has said it is investigating clusters linked to Mexican-style restaurants and a grocery chain, with more to come.

Here is the comparison that matters — what each state says about itself, set against what the CDC’s national map says about that same state. The pattern is unmistakable: where the CDC map shows a shaded state with no number, the state itself is now reporting counts that dwarf the entire national figure the map still displays.

StateCDC map (as of June 16/18)State-reported (as of Jul 7)What the comparison shows
MichiganNot in the CDC count700+ (38 hospitalized)The entire Michigan outbreak postdates the map.
OhioShaded; no number177171 of 177 cases postdate the CDC cutoff.
IllinoisAmong CDC’s highest; no number141State figure is current; the CDC’s is not.
New YorkCDC’s highest; no number120 (since May 1)CDC ranks it #1 but publishes no figure.
North CarolinaShaded; no number110 (since early June)Surge postdates the June 16 cutoff.
TexasAmong CDC’s highest; no numberNot releasedNeither gives the public a number.
PennsylvaniaShaded (voluntary); no numberNot releasedReported voluntarily, so it always lags.
ALL STATES145 total · 17 states1,250+ and climbingAn order-of-magnitude gap on the page families trust.

What is the real number? I will give you my honest arithmetic, with the caveat that no one — not me, not the CDC — can hand you a clean figure today. Add just the five states that have published totals — Michigan (700+), Ohio (177), Illinois (141), New York (120), and North Carolina (110) — and you are already at roughly 1,250 reported cases. Fold in Texas, Pennsylvania, and the smaller clusters, and a realistic national floor is 1,300 to 1,500 reported cases for the 2026 season so far. The true number is higher still, because — as the CDC itself concedes — most people with a week of diarrhea never get tested, and you cannot count what no lab ever sees.

The reason I have to estimate is the states count on rolling windows and report on their own schedules; Pennsylvania reports voluntarily; New York folds in New York City; the CDC’s surveillance count uses illness-onset dates and lags by weeks. The federal map is not lying. It is just describing a photograph taken in the middle of June while the fire is still spreading in July. That gap is not a rounding error. It is the difference between “145” and something an order of magnitude larger.

It does not help that this is in a year when the agency doing the counting has been hollowed out. When you cut the people and the pass-through money that state and local health departments rely on to detect and report outbreaks, this is what you get: a national map that can’t keep up with a national outbreak.

USA TODAY asked which states have the most cases. The right answer, today, is more than the map admits, in more places than the map shows. If you have had sudden, watery, “explosive” diarrhea that won’t quit, especially in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, or Texas, see a doctor and ask specifically about Cyclospora — a routine stool culture can miss it. And if you test positive, call your local health department. You are not just a patient. Right now, you are the only reliable data point the system has.

Cyclosporiasis is an intestinal illness caused by the parasite Cyclospora cayetanensis, which is transmissible by ingestion of fecally contaminated food or water. Cyclosporiasis is most common in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. In the United States, foodborne outbreaks of cyclosporiasis have been linked to various types of imported fresh produce — basil, raspberries, snow peas, cilantro, and bagged salad among them.

Cyclospora infects the small intestine and usually causes watery diarrhea, bloating, increased gas, stomach cramps, loss of appetite, nausea, low-grade fever, and fatigue. In some cases, vomiting, explosive diarrhea, muscle aches, and substantial weight loss occur. The time between becoming infected and becoming ill is usually about a week. If not treated, the illness may last from a few days up to six weeks, and symptoms may recur one or more times.

Reported cases have climbed markedly over the past decade — from 537 in 2016 to 3,519 in 2018 and 4,703 in 2019 — an increase that reflects both a genuine rise in illness and the growing use of rapid multiplex molecular stool panels that now detect Cyclospora as a matter of routine. The seasonal pattern has continued: early in the 2026 season, CDC reported those 145 domestically acquired cases across 17 states between May 1 and June 16 — the very number that has now been overtaken by events.

And here is the part people never want to hear rinsing or washing produce is not likely to remove Cyclospora oocysts, which adhere tightly to surfaces, and the parasite is resistant to routine chemical disinfection such as chlorine. The theoretical infective dose may be as low as a single sporulated oocyst. Wash your greens — but understand that washing is not a cure for a contaminated food supply.

Another organic product, another Shiga toxin-producing E. coli outbreak, and another family who did nothing wrong except buy blueberries at their neighborhood grocery store.

The FDA and CDC, along with state and local partners, are investigating a multistate outbreak of E. coli O145:H28 infections linked to frozen GreenWise-brand organic blueberries recalled by Frutas y Hortalizas del Sur S.A. of San Carlos, Chile. As of the July 6, 2026 update, there are 12 confirmed cases, 4 hospitalizations, and no deaths across two states. The illnesses are concentrated in Florida, with a single case reported in Georgia.

Our firm has been retained by one of those Florida families. A young boy and his grandmother both fell ill after eating the blueberries — the kind of case that has haunted me since 1993, because the very young and the elderly are precisely the people whose bodies are least equipped to fight off E. coli O145. When people ask me why I still do this work after thirty-plus years, this is the answer: it is always a child and a grandmother, never the company that shipped the contaminated product.

What the government has told us so far

On July 1, 2026, the Florida Department of Health notified CDC about an ongoing investigation into a cluster of E. coli O145 illnesses. Based on interviews with sick people, frozen GreenWise-brand organic blueberries sold at Publix were identified as the leading food item of interest. Florida shared those findings with Publix headquarters, and Publix immediately conducted an internal stop sale of the product at its stores.

The epidemiology points hard at these berries. Seven of nine cases interviewed reported eating frozen blueberries, and of those, five specifically named GreenWise-brand organic frozen blueberries purchased from Publix. Illnesses started on dates ranging from May 11, 2026 to June 5, 2026.

The recall

On July 3, 2026, Frutas y Hortalizas del Sur S.A. recalled the frozen GreenWise-brand organic blueberries, sold in 10-ounce packages with a printed lot code of 60401 and a Best By date of February 9, 2028. The recalled product was shipped to Publix stores in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Consumers should check their freezers and either throw the product away or return it. If you froze berries without the original packaging and can’t tell whether they are part of the recall, throw them out.

A word about O145 and HUS

O145 is one of the “big six” non-O157 Shiga toxin-producing E. coli serogroups, and it is every bit as dangerous as the O157:H7 strain most people have heard of. These infections can cause severe bloody diarrhea and lead to life-threatening conditions such as hemolytic uremic syndrome — a type of kidney failure — as well as high blood pressure, chronic kidney disease, and neurologic problems. In children, HUS is the leading cause of acute kidney failure. Four people are already hospitalized in an outbreak this small — that is a sobering ratio, and it tells you how virulent this strain is.

When to see a doctor

If you ate these blueberries and you or a family member develops diarrhea with a fever over 102°F, diarrhea lasting more than three days, bloody diarrhea, or so much vomiting that you can’t keep liquids down — or signs of dehydration like not urinating, dry mouth, or dizziness on standing — call your doctor. Ask to be tested for Shiga toxin-producing E. coli and mention the blueberries. That detail can save critical time.

The bigger picture

This is imported organic produce, contaminated somewhere between a farm in Chile and a freezer in Florida, sold under a trusted store brand to families who assumed “organic” meant “safe.” Organic says nothing about microbial contamination. Frozen fruit gets a pass in a lot of kitchens because people assume freezing kills pathogens — it does not. Freezing preserves E. coli just as well as it preserves the fruit.

FDA and state partners are still working to pin down where in the supply chain the contamination occurred.

FSIS has a new pilot. The agency is inviting poultry plants to volunteer to measure Salmonella more precisely as birds move through slaughter and processing — either by biomapping the plant top to bottom, or by building a validated critical control point for Salmonella into their HACCP plan, quantifying and serotyping as they go. In return, a plant that signs up gets a shorter compliance window — as little as 13 weeks instead of the current 52 — and can ask FSIS for waivers to test less often. The agency says the data it collects “could inform potential future regulatory changes.”

I have read a lot of these constituent updates over the last thirty years. This one measures. It does not decide.

It is the sequel to the Salmonella Framework FSIS proposed in August 2024 and then quietly withdrew in April 2025, after more than 7,000 comments and a lot of industry heartburn about legal authority, the science, and the cost. Then came a public meeting in January. Now a voluntary pilot. The direction of travel could not be clearer: more study, more meetings, more measurement — and still no line in the sand.

Here is what gets me. The science in this pilot is pointed in exactly the right direction. Quantifying the organism instead of a yes/no presence test. Serotyping to find the Salmonella that actually puts people in the hospital. That is precisely the machinery you would need to declare pathogenic Salmonella an adulterant. The old excuse — “we can’t tell which Salmonella is dangerous” — disappears the moment you can. And yet FSIS keeps treating that emerging science as a reason to keep studying rather than a reason to act. The agency’s new head of food safety went on camera and said she is even more convinced Salmonella should not be an adulterant, that first we have to go find the “most pathogenic Salmonella.”

Fine. Go find it. We handed you the list six years ago.

In 2020, my firm petitioned FSIS on behalf of Rick Schiller, Steven Romes, the Porter family, Food & Water Watch, the Consumer Federation of America, and Consumer Reports, asking the agency to declare a defined set of outbreak serotypes adulterants in meat and poultry:

Agona, Anatum, Berta, Blockely, Braenderup, Derby, Dublin, Enteritidis, Hadar, Heidelberg, I 4,[5],12:i:-, Infantis, Javiana, Litchfield, Mbandaka, Mississippi, Montevideo, Muenchen, Newport, Oranienburg, Panama, Poona, Reading, Saintpaul, Sandiego, Schwarzengrund, Senftenberg, Stanley, Thompson, Typhi, and Typhimurium.

Thirty of the thirty-one come straight out of the CDC’s own Salmonella Atlas — forty-two years of laboratory-confirmed illness. Those are the serotypes making people sick. That is the “most pathogenic Salmonella” everyone keeps saying we still need to identify. It has been sitting on the agency’s desk this whole time.

Meanwhile, the numbers do not move. Roughly 1.35 million Salmonella infections a year in this country. About a quarter of the foodborne cases trace back to poultry. Between 2017 and 2021, FSIS watched the share of chicken samples testing positive for Salmonella fall by more than half — and the human illness rate did not budge. That is the whole point, and it is the thing the agency will not say out loud: measuring contamination more precisely is not the same as making fewer people sick. We have twenty years of flat illness curves proving it.

And read the fine print on this pilot. A plant that joins gets a shortened compliance window and can apply to sample less frequently, and FSIS may even stop posting that plant’s Salmonella category where the public can see it. The “reform” hands industry a lighter regulatory touch today in exchange for data the agency may or may not ever use to regulate tomorrow. The data gets collected. The rule never comes.

None of this required a pilot to figure out, because the law has not changed since I wrote about it in March. The Federal Meat Inspection Act and the Poultry Products Inspection Act both say a product is adulterated if it: “bears or contains any poisonous or deleterious substance which may render it injurious to health.”

Salmonella that hospitalizes tens of thousands of Americans and kills hundreds every year is a deleterious substance. It is not a close call. The Fifth Circuit in Supreme Beef leaned on the comfortable fiction that cooking cures everything and the consumer will sort it out — the same 1974 logic that once told American housewives to handle raw poultry carefully and not bother the meat industry about it. That reasoning was wrong then, and it is wrong now.

So here is my take on the pilot, same as my take on the framework, same as my take on the petition. We do not need FSIS to measure Salmonella more precisely to know it belongs on the list of things in our food that can poison or kill a person. The agency has the authority. It has the serotypes. And now it has the very quantification tools it always claimed it was waiting for.

Stop measuring the problem and start calling it what it is. You have the authority — you just need to use it.

Location on Illnesses – Florida and Georgia.

The FDA and CDC, in collaboration with state and local partners, are investigating illnesses in a multistate outbreak of E. coli O145:H28 infections linked to frozen GreenWise brand-organic blueberries recalled by Frutas y Hortalizas del Sur S.A, of San Carlos, Chile.

On July 1, 2026, the Florida Department of Health (FDOH) notified CDC partners about an ongoing investigation into a cluster of E. coli O145 illnesses. Based on interviews with sick people, frozen GreenWise-brand organic blueberries sold at Publix were identified as the leading food item of interest in this outbreak. Florida state partners shared their findings with Publix Headquarters and, in response, Publix immediately conducted an internal stop sale of frozen GreenWise-brand organic blueberries at their stores.  

Based on epidemiological information collected by CDC and FDOH state partners, a total of twelve people infected with the outbreak strain of E. coli have been reported from two states. Illnesses started on dates ranging from May 11, 2026, to June 5, 2026. Seven of 9 (78%) cases interviewed reported eating frozen blueberries. Of which, 5 specified GreenWise- brand organic frozen blueberries purchased from Publix. There have been four hospitalizations, and no deaths have been reported. 

In response to this investigation, on July 3, 2026, Frutas y Hortalizas del Sur S.A., San Carlos, Chile recalled frozen GreenWise-brand organic blueberries, sold in 10-oz packages with a printed lot code of 60401 and Best by Date of February 9, 2028. The recalled product was shipped to Publix retail stores in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Consumers should check their freezers for the recalled product and should not consume it. The product should be discarded or returned to the place of purchase. 

FDA and state partners are actively working to determine the source of contamination. Additional products may be added to this advisory as the investigation continues. This advisory will be updated as new information becomes available.

Where Product was Distributed.

On July 6, 2026, the CDC and FDA updated their joint investigation of the infant botulism outbreak linked to Nara Organics Whole Milk Organic Powdered Infant Formula. A fourth infant has now been confirmed sick. All four babies — every one of them a boy between two and five months old — were hospitalized and treated with BabyBIG, the botulism immune globulin. Thankfully, no child has died. But four families have now lived through every parent’s nightmare because of a can of formula they trusted.

Here is where things stand as of the latest update:

  • 4 confirmed cases of infant botulism (up from 3) across 3 states — California (2), Pennsylvania (1), and Washington (1).
  • All 4 infants were hospitalized. Zero deaths.
  • Illness onset dates range from April through May 2026.
  • Laboratory testing confirmed Clostridium botulinum in an open can of Nara formula fed to one of the sick infants.
  • FDA is now testing an unopened sample from the same lot, with more results expected in the coming weeks.

Back when the ByHeart recall was unfolding in late 2025, Nara Organics posted a page on its own website titled “Information for Families Affected by the ByHeart Recall.” The message to frightened parents looking for a safe alternative could not have been more confident:

“Please be assured that Nara Organics is not affected by this recall and our formula is safe to drink. Your baby’s safety is our highest priority, and we hold ourselves to the most rigorous standards in the industry.”

That page is still live as I write this. It told the very parents fleeing one botulism recall to come feed their babies a formula that would, months later, be pulled from shelves in its own botulism recall. I have been doing this work for more than thirty years, going back to the 1993 Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak, and I have read a lot of corporate reassurances that curdled. This one belongs in the hall of shame.

I do not doubt that the mom who founded Nara believed every word of it. That is exactly the problem. Confidence is not a safety system. “We hold ourselves to the most rigorous standards” is a marketing sentence, not a food safety result — and it is worth remembering that Nara’s page also boasted the formula was “made in Germany” by a partner with “over 70 years of experience.” None of that stopped C. botulinum from ending up in a can fed to an infant.

Here is what turns this from a tragedy into a scandal. According to FDA’s June 26 update, the specific lots of Nara formula the sick infants consumed were made with milk supplied by Organic West Milk and spray dried by Dairy Farmers of America (DFA).

Those are the same two suppliers tied to the 2025 ByHeart infant formula botulism outbreak. The same milk source. The same spray dryer. A different brand on the label, but the same upstream ingredients flowing into babies’ bottles.

And it gets worse. FDA says that during the ByHeart investigation, Organic West Milk provided FDA with an incomplete customer list — a list that did not disclose that Organic West was also supplying milk to the manufacturers of Nara Organics formula. Regulators were investigating a deadly infant botulism outbreak. They asked who else was getting this milk. And they were not told about Nara.

If FDA had been given a complete and accurate customer list in 2025, investigators might have been looking hard at Nara’s supply chain months earlier — before four more babies got sick. This is precisely the supply-chain foreseeability problem I have been writing about for months. When the same milk and the same powder feed multiple brands, a contamination event is never really “one company’s problem.” It is a systemic problem.

FDA has also confirmed that, before this outbreak, it inspected and issued citations to two facilities that manufacture Nara’s formula. Both firms have submitted corrective-action responses that are still under review. Citations before an outbreak. An incomplete customer list during the last outbreak. Shared suppliers across both. Foreseeable does not begin to cover it.

If you have Nara Organics Whole Milk Organic Powdered Infant Formula in your home, stop using it immediately. It was sold nationwide through Target stores, Target.com, and Nara.com between July 2025 and June 2026, and all of it has been recalled.

  • Before you throw a container away, photograph the label, lot number, and expiration date.
  • Consider keeping any opened formula sealed and labeled “DO NOT USE,” stored away from your baby’s food, for at least a month in case your health department wants to test it.
  • Wash any items or surfaces that touched the formula with hot, soapy water or in the dishwasher.

Know the symptoms of infant botulism. It often starts with constipation, then shows up as poor feeding, a weak or altered cry, loss of head control, difficulty swallowing, and decreased facial expression. It can progress to trouble breathing. Symptoms can take days to weeks to appear after the formula is eaten. If your baby shows any of these signs, seek medical care immediately.

Physicians who suspect infant botulism should call the Infant Botulism Treatment and Prevention Program at 510-231-7600 — available 24/7 — for case consultation and to arrange BabyBIG treatment.

I represent families in both the ByHeart and Nara outbreaks, so I am not a neutral observer, and I will not pretend to be. But you do not need to be a plaintiffs’ lawyer to see the pattern here. Two infant formula botulism outbreaks. The same milk supplier. The same spray dryer. An incomplete disclosure to federal investigators. And a company page telling scared parents that its formula was the safe harbor — right up until it wasn’t.

Babies are the most vulnerable consumers there are. They eat one thing, and they cannot tell you when something is wrong. Formula companies and their suppliers know this, which is exactly why the standard of care has to be near-perfect. “Trust us” is not a food safety plan. Complete customer lists, honest disclosures to regulators, and rigorous testing that actually catches C. botulinum before it reaches a bottle — that is the plan. Four families are living with the consequences of the gaps.

And that is exactly why I have been pushing Congress to act. I have written to both the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Senate HELP Committee urging passage of the Infant Formula Safety Modernization Act of 2026 (H.R. 7867) and its Senate companion, S. 272 — and urging both committees to open hearings. Regulators need the clear authority, and the mandate, to compel complete supplier customer lists, to require finished-product and environmental testing for C. botulinum, and to trace a shared ingredient into every brand it touches before babies get sick, not after. Two botulism outbreaks tied to the same milk, ought to be more than enough to put a hearing on the calendar. If that is not enough, I honestly do not know what would be.

Botulism

Botulism is rare, but there is nothing else quite like it. The toxin produced by Clostridium botulinum is among the most potent poisons known, and it attacks the nervous system, causing a descending paralysis that can stop a person’s breathing. Marler Clark, The Food Safety Law Firm, is the nation’s leading firm representing victims of botulism outbreaks. Our botulism lawyers have represented thousands of victims in the only U.S. law practice devoted exclusively to foodborne illness, which has recovered more than $850 million for victims and families nationwide. We have handled botulism cases arising from carrot juice, pesto, cheese, chili, and improperly home-canned foods. Infant botulism works differently from the foodborne kind: rather than swallowing pre-formed toxin, a baby ingests spores that colonize the immature gut and produce the toxin there. Today we represent infants sickened in recent powdered infant formula botulism outbreaks, and we are working with Congress to pass legislation aimed at preventing the next one.

If you or a family member developed botulism after eating contaminated food, contact the Marler Clark botulism attorneys for a free case evaluation.

FAQ

What is botulism?

Botulism is a rare but life-threatening illness caused by a nerve toxin from the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, one of the most potent poisons known. It causes a descending paralysis that can stop breathing. Infant botulism differs from the foodborne form: a baby swallows spores that grow in the immature gut and produce the toxin there.

What foods cause botulism?

Improperly home-canned foods are the classic source, but outbreaks have also come from commercial products such as carrot juice, pesto, cheese sauce, and chili. Infant botulism has been linked to spores in honey and, more recently, in powdered infant formula.

What is infant botulism?

In infant botulism, a baby ingests C. botulinum spores that colonize the immature intestine and produce toxin internally. Early signs include constipation, a weak cry, poor feeding, and loss of muscle tone—the “floppy baby” presentation.

Is powdered infant formula being investigated?

Yes. We currently represent infants sickened in recent powdered infant formula botulism outbreaks, and we are working with Congress on legislation to require testing that could prevent the next one.

What should I do if my baby has these symptoms?

Seek emergency medical care immediately; infant botulism is treatable, and early treatment improves outcomes. Preserve any formula, containers, and lot numbers.

Additional Resources:

  • About Botulism — a complete online resource on botulism and its causes
  • Botulism Blog — current news on botulism outbreaks and research

Frutas y Hortalizas del Sur S.A., San Carlos, Chile is recalling frozen GreenWise Organic IQF Blueberries 10 oz. Because it may be contaminated with Escherichia coli O145:H28 (E. coli O145).

E. coli O145 is a Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) that can cause illness characterized by severe stomach cramps, diarrhea (which may be bloody), and vomiting. While most healthy individuals recover within a week, some infections may result in a serious complication known as hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), particularly in young children, older adults, and individuals with weakened immune systems.

The recalled product was shipped to Publix retail stores throughout 8 states including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Consumers should check their freezers for the affected product.

The affected product lot is:

  • Product: Frozen GreenWise Organic IQF Blueberries
  • Package Size: 10 oz
  • Lot Code: 60401
  • Best By Date: February 9, 2028

No other lot codes or Best By dates are affected by this recall.

There have been reports of 12 confirmed cases of consumers experiencing stomach illness between May 11, 2026 and June 5, 2026 linked with E. coli O145:H28 infections

After receiving reports of consumers experiencing digestive illnesses and having consumed GreenWise frozen blueberries as part of their diet, Frutas y Hortalizas S.A. has decided to initiate the recall.

Consumers who have frozen GreenWise blueberry products with the affected lot date should not consume it. The product should be discarded or returned to the place of purchase for a full refund.

Frutas y Hortalizas S.A. is working closely with the appropriate regulatory authorities and its customers regarding this recall. The company has instructed all customers receiving the affected lot to immediately isolate the product, discontinue its distribution, and notify any downstream customers who may have received the affected lot.

E. coli

E. coli O157:H7 is the pathogen that built this firm. In its worst form it produces a Shiga toxin that shuts down the kidneys—hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS)—and its victims are too often children. Marler Clark, The Food Safety Law Firm, is the nation’s leading firm for E. coli and HUS cases. Our E. coli lawyers have stood beside thousands of families in the only U.S. law practice devoted exclusively to foodborne illness, which has recovered more than $850 million for victims and families nationwide. We have traced E. coli to ground beef, raw milk, lettuce, spinach, sprouts, and much more, and we have brought cases against Jack in the Box, Dole, ConAgra, Cargill, and Jimmy John’s. Among those we have been honored to represent are Brianne Kiner, Stephanie Smith, and Linda Rivera. Our advocacy has reached beyond the courtroom as well: we helped push the federal government to declare E. coli O157:H7—and later six additional Shiga toxin–producing strains—adulterants in ground beef, and we have funded independent research into the pathogen to push the science forward.

If you or a family member developed an E. coli infection or HUS after eating contaminated food and you want to understand your legal options, contact the Marler Clark E. coli attorneys for a free case evaluation.

FAQ

What is E. coli?

E. coli O157:H7 is a Shiga toxin–producing strain of Escherichia coli that causes severe, sometimes life-threatening food poisoning. Most people develop painful stomach cramps and bloody diarrhea three to four days after exposure, and about 5 to 10 percent of victims—often young children—go on to develop hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a form of acute kidney failure.

What foods cause E. coli outbreaks?

Ground beef, raw milk, leafy greens such as romaine and spinach, sprouts, unpasteurized juice, and raw flour have all been linked to E. coli O157:H7. Any food contaminated with even a trace of cattle feces can carry it.

What is HUS, and is it permanent?

Hemolytic uremic syndrome is the most common cause of acute kidney failure in young children. Many children recover, but some are left with lasting kidney damage, high blood pressure, or neurological injury and need lifelong monitoring.

Can I sue if I got E. coli from food?

If a contaminated food caused your infection, you may have a product-liability claim against the manufacturer, grower, or restaurant. The key questions are what you ate and whether your illness is genetically linked to a known outbreak strain.

How long do I have to file an E. coli lawsuit?

Filing deadlines (statutes of limitation) vary by state and by the type of injury, and they can run quickly. A free case evaluation is the fastest way to learn where you stand.

Additional Resources:

Ten people are dead. Fifty-nine were hospitalized. The plant in Jarratt, Virginia that made the liverwurst that killed them carried a documented record of filth going back years — product residue on food-contact surfaces, black mold on the walls, flies and ants and a cockroach-like insect in the coolers, water dripping over the product, blood on the floors. When ten people die from a single meal, I want to know one thing above all others: is anyone going to be held accountable, and will the public ever be told how it ends.

On June 2, 2026, I asked. I sent USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service a Freedom of Information Act request built around the two questions that actually matter for accountability. First, what is the current status of any law-enforcement hold or referral on the Boar’s Head records — has the Exemption 7(A) basis USDA asserted in 2024 been lifted? Second, produce any referral or transmittal records between FSIS and the Department of Justice concerning Boar’s Head, to the extent they can be released. I also asked for the records FSIS once withheld as law-enforcement material, everything about the Associated Press’s appeal, and the final enforcement actions on the Jarratt plant. Because conditions had changed — the plant reopened in February 2026 — I asked FSIS to re-evaluate whether the interference-with-enforcement rationale it invoked in 2024 still held up.

On July 2, 2026, I got my answer. It is worth reading closely, and I’ve attached all three documents below so you can read it yourself.

Seventy-eight pages, released under FOIA No. 2026-FSIS-00209-F. Much of it I had seen before — the Associated Press already pried a version loose in early 2025. There is the July 26, 2024 Notice of Suspension and the revised version four days later, laying out the whole grim arithmetic that FSIS knew from the start: 34 sick across 13 states, every hospitalized patient with available information hospitalized, two dead, whole-genome sequencing tying the liverwurst strain to the people it killed, and a positive Listeria swab on Pallet Jack SH3 in a processing room with no walls between the lines and no written plan to keep employees from carrying contamination from one line to the next. There are the lab reports. There are the “for further processing” emails, where a plant under suspension asked to keep shipping raw material out of Jarratt and FSIS blessed it “as long as it meets all applicable regulations.” There is the email where the company asked permission to dispose of recalled product and a district manager wrote back, “Yes. Just keep records.”

That is the record of a company that was warned, and warned, and warned again, and a regulator that watched it happen. It is damning. But it is not what I asked for.

THE PAPER TRAIL FSIS ALREADY HAD
Noncompliance documented at Jarratt (Est. M12612), from the released Notice of Suspension
Product residue on food- & non-food-contact surfaces (pre-op):  2/3/24 · 2/29/24 · 3/14/24 · 3/22/24 · 4/19/24 · 5/20/24 · 6/28/24 · 7/6/24 · 7/19/24
Product residue from prior shifts (operational SSOP):  6/7/24
Insects — flies, ants, ladybugs, a cockroach-like insect:  2/7/24 · 2/11/24 · 3/15/24 · 6/10/24 · 6/26/24 · 7/12/24 · 7/17/24
Black mold / algal growth / insanitary conditions:  2/22/24 · 6/1/24 · 6/28/24 · 7/12/24 · 7/17/24 · 7/23/24 · 7/24/24
Water leaks over storage & product:  6/10/24 · 7/6/24
Dripping condensation on product / bags of dextrose:  7/9/24 · 7/12/24
Inedible product not denatured, mark of inspection left on:  2/8/24 · 2/21/24 · 4/8/24 · 4/24/24And this is only 2024. Federal inspectors had warned the Jarratt conditions posed an “imminent threat to public health” as early as 2022.

In 2024, FSIS withheld these records under FOIA Exemption 7(A) — the law-enforcement exemption you invoke only when releasing records “could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings.” You do not invoke it over a matter that does not exist. Its use in 2024 was the strongest public confirmation we had that someone with a badge was looking hard at this company.

In the July 2, 2026 response, Exemption 7(A) is gone. FSIS now redacts only under Exemptions 4, 5, and 6 — trade secrets, deliberative process, and personal privacy. It cited no law-enforcement interference at all. That is a meaningful signal. It means that, whatever is happening, FSIS no longer believes releasing these particular records would step on an active proceeding.

Now watch the negative space, because in a FOIA response the silence is the message.

I asked for the status of any law-enforcement hold. On a June 4 clarification call, my office agreed to narrow the request and set that bullet aside to move the rest along — I’ll be straight about that. But I also asked, in a separate bullet that was never dropped, for any FSIS–DOJ referral or transmittal records. The final response recites that bullet word for word at the top of the letter. And then it does nothing with it. No records. No Vaughn-style description of records withheld. No statement that no responsive records exist. Not a single word about the Department of Justice anywhere in 78 pages.

And there is not one word about the other investigation I care about — the USDA Inspector General’s review of how its own inspectors let this plant run for years while the noncompliance reports stacked up. If the government is examining its own people, none of it is in here.

The law-enforcement exemption that once shielded these records has quietly evaporated, which tells us the interference concern has cooled. But whether that is because a criminal matter has been referred out and now lives on a docket in the Eastern District of Virginia, because it has wound down, or because it was never pursued to a charge — the response does not say, and I suspect FSIS does not intend to say. Grand-jury secrecy under Rule 6(e) covers a live investigation. It does not require the agency to pretend the DOJ bullet in my request was never written.

I have spent more than thirty years representing people whose lives were shattered by a single meal, and my stated goal has always been to put myself out of business by making food safe enough that families no longer need lawyers like me. Criminal food cases are slow — the Peanut Corporation of America prosecution that sent Stewart Parnell to prison for twenty-eight years took years to build; Chipotle’s $25 million deferred-prosecution deal followed outbreaks that began long before it. I am not demanding a charge on a schedule I happen to prefer.

I am demanding an answer to a fair and narrow question: is anyone still working this, and will the public ever be told how it ends? A 78-page release that hands back the inspection records we already had, drops the law-enforcement exemption without explanation, and never once utters the words “Department of Justice” is not an answer. It is a shrug dressed up as a determination.

Ten people are still dead. Their families are still waiting. I intend to keep asking.

https://www.marlerblog.com/files/2026/07/FOIA_USDA_FSIS_BoarsHead2-1.pdf

https://www.marlerblog.com/files/2026/07/FSIS-FOIA-No.-2026-FSIS-00209-F-Final-Response-Letter.pdf

https://www.marlerblog.com/files/2026/07/2026-FSIS-00209-F-Final-Records.pdf

A few days ago, I wrote about the $500,000 Abbott gave to the inauguration and the $500,000 in Abbott stock that turned up in the President’s portfolio while his Justice Department sat on a criminal case against the company. I said then that the families whose babies were fed formula from Sturgis were owed a better answer than an invoice.

This morning Bloomberg Law gave us the rest of the story, and it is worse than I thought. The Abbott decision was not a one-off. It has become a policy.

Let me lay out what the Bloomberg reporting adds, because the details matter.

First: the prosecutors wanted the case. According to people familiar with the internal deliberations, the head of DOJ’s Criminal Division, Tysen Duva, actually pushed to charge Abbott — a felony theory that executives conspired to defraud the United States, plus a separate Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act charge against the company itself. Duva, a career line prosecutor, reportedly reviewed the case favorably while he was still awaiting Senate confirmation. When the consumer-protection lawyers were folded into his division last November, supervisors flagged Abbott as ripe — and they liked it precisely because it could hold individuals accountable. They told the team to draft a prosecution memo over Thanksgiving weekend.

Let’s put to rest the idea that this case was dropped because it was weak. The people whose job it is to weigh the evidence looked at it and wanted to indict. That squares with everything the Wall Street Journal already reported: a pile of evidence, and then a dropped case.

Second: the case was killed from the top. The Deputy Attorney General’s office — then run by Todd Blanche — overruled Duva and ordered the criminal probe closed, deciding a civil deal under the False Claims Act was the “more appropriate” resolution. I’ve spent thirty-three years in this world. I know what a civil settlement is and what it is not. It is a check. It is not a prosecution. Nobody goes to prison. No executive lies awake at night. The company writes it off and moves on.

Third — and this is the part every parent need to remember — one of Abbott’s lawyers reportedly warned DOJ that an indictment might cause the company to cancel a roughly $1 billion plant it plans to build in Ohio, along with the hundreds of jobs that come with it.

There it is. Not the Cronobacter on the equipment. Not the whistleblower who said records were falsified. Not the dead babies. A billion-dollar plant and a jobs number.

To its credit, the Department says it gave that argument no weight at all, and that it has reached an agreement in principle with Abbott that includes a significant payment — one it says will send an unmistakable message that companies who endanger babies face serious consequences. I hope that’s true. But forgive me if, after watching a criminal case that supervisors called ripe get spiked in favor of a check, I reserve judgment on how unmistakable the message really is. The families I represent have heard a lot of messages over the years. What deters the next executive is a subpoena, not a settlement.

Fourth, and the reason I’m writing again: this is spreading. Bloomberg reports that after the DAG’s office rejected the Abbott charges, division leaders directed prosecutors to close other food and drug industry probes and imposed a heightened evidentiary standard on corporate investigations going forward. The health and safety unit still has cases open — but they’re reportedly stalling, because the people running them are trying not to get overruled again. Raise the bar high enough and you don’t have to formally decline anything. The cases just quietly die on the vine.

If any of this sounds familiar, it should. Back in May of 2025 I wrote about the executive order declaring criminal enforcement of regulatory offenses “disfavored,” and about the disbanding of the Consumer Protection Branch — the 215-person office that prosecuted the Peanut Corporation of America executives after the 2009 Salmonella outbreak that killed nine people. I said then that even if this administration had the appetite to prosecute a food company, there would soon be no one left to do the work.

The Bloomberg story is what that prediction looks like in practice. The consumer unit was dissolved, its prosecutors were merged into a division run by managers who’d already decided their work was too aggressive, and the first big case to reach those managers’ bosses got killed. Now the higher bar is the house rule.

There is a bitter little irony in the timing. On June 28, the chief of the health and safety unit, Kate Payerle, stood on a conference panel and told a room full of corporate defense lawyers that her team would keep going after cases like food-plant disease outbreaks. Hours later, the news broke that the Abbott baby-formula probe was dead.

I have spent my entire career arguing that criminal accountability is the one thing that actually changes corporate behavior. Civil cases like mine make companies pay. Criminal cases make executives afraid. You need both. Take the fear away, and you have told every formula maker, every deli, every processor in America that the worst thing that happens when a baby dies is a line item on next quarter’s books.

I said last week that the Sturgis families were owed better than an invoice. I’ll add to it now: so is every family that comes next — because the machinery built to protect them is being dismantled one dropped case at a time.