Follow-up: E. Coli Cases Linked to Chicken Wraps Rise to 50 as FDA Investigation Continues
Background: This E. coli O157:H7 investigation, linked to chicken wraps, opened on Sept. 23 with 25 cases; by Oct. 1, when GSM last reported on it, the joint investigation by the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture counted 38 cases and no food had yet been named. The tally has since risen to 50, and the first lawsuit over the products has been filed.
The number of E. coli O157:H7 illnesses linked to a suspected multi-ingredient chicken wrap has risen to 50, according to the Food and Drug Administration's table of active outbreak investigations — double the 25 cases listed when the file opened on Sept. 23. The investigation, conducted by the FDA with the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FDA reference 1421; FSIS 2026-04), remains ongoing, with traceback, on-site inspection and sampling under way.
Neither agency has named the manufacturer, brand or retailer involved, nor any state where illnesses occurred. The FDA says the wraps were proactively removed from the market before the link was confirmed and are past their shelf life, so no recall has been issued. Food Safety News reports the USDA is working to determine whether the chicken in the wraps went into other products. No hospitalization count has been released, and the CDC has not posted an investigation notice.
On Oct. 15, food-safety firm Marler Clark filed the outbreak's first lawsuit, in federal court in Los Angeles, alleging that Gayle Gottlieb of Pembroke, North Carolina, and Meaghan Egan Bright of Somerville, Massachusetts, were hospitalized after eating Trader Joe's Tarragon Chicken Salad Wraps bought Aug. 23 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Aug. 24 in Allston, Massachusetts, and that their state health departments classified them as confirmed cases in the multistate outbreak (Gottlieb and Bright v. Trader Joe's Company, No. 2:26-cv-12017). Trader Joe's has not publicly responded to the suit.
On the lawsuit, the Marler Clark complaint in the Central District of California (Case No. 2:26-cv-12017) names Trader Joe’s Tarragon Chicken Salad Wraps: Gayle Gottlieb of Pembroke, North Carolina, and Meaghan Egan Bright of Somerville, Massachusetts, bought the wraps on August 23 and 24 at Trader Joe’s stores in Myrtle Beach and Allston, fell ill and were hospitalized, and lab testing confirmed Shiga toxin-producing E. coli infection. (GSM, based on the FDA outbreak table, Food Safety News and reporting on the court filing)
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：大肠杆菌一万倍放大电镜图。图片来源：公共领域（Wikimedia Commons）。Photo: E. coli bacteria at 10,000x magnification. Image: Public domain (Wikimedia Commons).
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