6 Of The Worst Salmonella Outbreaks In US History

Unfortunately for us all, salmonella is not a cute name for a salmon pet. It's actually a pesky bacteria that can get into certain foods and cause some of the worst cases of foodborne illnesses known to humanity. While it's possible to get this nasty little bug and show no symptoms, in other cases, salmonellosis, the resulting infection, can lead to stomach cramps, fever, and even death.

Salmonella is most commonly associated with raw or undercooked chicken and other meat products. Raw chicken is famously off limits because of the impending risk of salmonella. Indeed, it's interesting to note that none of the U.S.'s most serious salmonella outbreaks have ever resulted from consuming chicken–perhaps because most people are keenly aware of the dangers of this infection. Rather, salmonella has mainly snuck into our bodies by glomming onto foods we wouldn't even suspect, like peanuts or cucumbers. This is what makes it truly insidious. When farmers unwittingly (one would hope) irrigate fresh produce with water that has been contaminated with salmonella, we're done for. So now that we've established that chicken-related salmonella cases are not that common, at least not en masse, let's look at which foods have actually caused _us the most trouble in the past. Below, we've put together a list of the worst cases of salmonella ever to occur in the U.S., basing our choices on the number of casualties reported as well as the overall number of reported cases.

Milk is a huge staple of the American breakfast. Whether you're having a simple bowl of cereal or making an elaborate pancake meal, milk is likely to be involved in some way. Which is why it is so tragic when all that milk turns out to give you fever and chills, or worse. But this is what happened in 1985, when milk from Hillfarm Dairy in Melrose Park, Illinois, was found to have caused a terrible salmonella outbreak that year in several mid-Western states.

About nine deaths were linked to the outbreak, while 6,6644 cases of poisoning were reported overall, affecting Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Milk is normally pretty safe from salmonella, since pasteurization typically kills the bacteria and milk sold commercially in the U.S. is required to be pasteurized. Indeed, Hillfarm Dairy did pasteurize its milk on this and other occasions, but as the CDC has suggested, the process may have been inadequate or the contamination may have occurred afterward.

When salmonella is initially reported and investigators spring into action to try and determine its source, it is often the case that offending products are taken off the shelves and recalled before too many people get hurt. That is not what happened in 1994, when ice cream sold by Schwan's Sales Enterprises in Marshall, Minnesota, was found to have infected up to 5,000 people in more than 15 states.

Inspectors believe the outbreak was caused by pasteurized ice cream premix that was carried in a tanker truck that had previously transported raw, unpasteurized eggs without being properly washed. Indeed, eggs are another common source of salmonella contamination, as the bacteria can get into the food through porous eggshells that may have come into contact with chicken droppings. Salmonella can also get directly into the egg as it forms inside the chicken and before the shell has materialized. That ice cream premix was not pasteurized again after coming into contact with the eggs, and the rest is history.

Peanut butter is a sacred American snack (and breakfast, lunch, and perhaps even dinner) food, so it's nigh on tragic when something so scary as a foodborne illness comes to threaten its supplies. It shakes us to the core. Yet that is exactly what happened in 2009, a year that shall live in peanut butter infamy for having brought to us a peanut salmonella case via the Peanut Corporation of America in Blakeley, Georgia.

What caused this scourge was a faulty quality control process, and the result was nine deaths and some 22,500 reported illnesses. Although such an event can never be reversed, at least we know that the heads of the company that supplied the peanuts, Stewart and Michael Parnell, was convicted in 2014 of conspiracy, fraud, and other charges relating to knowingly unleashing a salmonella-laced product onto the market. Perhaps it was because the tainted product affected America's beloved peanut butter, or perhaps it was because it was time, but this instance was the first in history in which a company head was charged with a felony relating to shipping salmonella-contaminated food.

Turkey and chicken have so much in common. They're both poultry, they both have plenty of white and dark meat, and they taste very similar. So, if you're one to typically associate salmonella with undercooked chicken, you might not be surprised to find that salmonella-infused ground turkey was the source of a terrible outbreak in 2011, stemming from meat distribution giant Cargill. One person died as a result of the outbreak, while 134 people were reported ill. Indeed, according to the New York Times, up to 15% of ground turkey is contaminated with salmonella at any given time.

Luckily, the cooking process destroys salmonella, which is why most people always make sure to thoroughly cook their poultry (the cooking temperature has to reach 165 degrees Fahrenheit in order to be effective), but that's no reason to let your guard down. Many cases of poultry-related salmonella have occurred through cross contamination, such as when a person prepares raw turkey on a cutting board, then chops up something else (that will not be cooked) on that same board without washing it first.

In 2015, a bad batch of cucumber imported from Mexico and distributed by a California company killed one person and caused more than 280 people to become ill with salmonellosis. This may seem somewhat farfetched, because beautiful, fresh and colourful cucumbers don't seem all that dangerous, but it's not that unusual for salmonella to contaminate cucumbers.

In fact, it happened again. In 2024, an outbreak tied to Florida cucumbers infected more than 400 people, though no deaths were reported, thankfully. But now you might be wondering how on Earth such a thing could happen so often? Well, it has to do with unsanitary agricultural processes. In this particular instance in Florida, the Washington Post reported that untreated canal water used in the irrigation of the cucumbers came in contact with the vegetables as they were growing. Since salmonella is typically spread through feces, and heavens knows what lurks in those canals, it should be no surprise that those cucumbers never stood a chance.

As with cucumbers, cantaloupe, with its thick outer armor, might also seem safe from contamination relating to salmonella. Yet a 2023 salmonella outbreak came from none other than imported cantaloupes, both whole and fresh cubed cantaloupe, which killed fifteen people and infected another 600 in the U.S. and Canada.

The offending cantaloupes were found to have been imported from Mexico, and as it turns out, this particular fruit is actually more prone to salmonella than many others precisely because of its thick armor. In fact, that bumpy, rugged exterior makes it especially hard to wipe off any bacteria (like salmonella) that may have taken up residence on it. Then, the bacteria can grow unchecks. Plus, once you have a cantaloupe in hand and you're cutting it up, you can easily transfer that bacteria from the outdoor rind to the juicy fruit inside. The double threat on this occasion came from reports of hurricanes and subsequent flooding in the area where the cantaloupes were growing, which may have exposed them to untreated and unsanitary water.