The USDA and CDC took a greater interest in sprouts, because the growing conditions for seeds are also favorable growing conditions for bacteria and because as a raw food, sprouts do not benefit from sterilization by cooking. Common garden vegetable seeds are also subject to these same risks. Sprouts are also newsworthy because it is a legendary health food. It is an irony for a health food to be the cause of ill health. The industry is woefully ineffective in telling its side of the story.
Any infectious outbreak is scary news.
But in order to avoid a panic that propels a problem out of proportion, we must understand its risks compared with other risks. Only 700 people reported salmonellosis in the two 1995 sprout incidents described in the JAMA article. But the article estimates that up to 20,000 people were probably affected. While fatalities are rare, in 1995, the same year as the reported sprout cases, the CDC documented 15 fatalities caused by reactions to foods such as peanuts, milk, eggs and shellfish. Every year, there are an estimated 9,000 deaths and 81 million illnesses due to unsafe foods.