Jimmy John's will remove sprouts after all

Jimmy John Liautaud has changed his mind and decided to temporarily pull alfalfa sprouts from his company's menus after the Illinois Department of Public Health announced 43 confirmed reports of salmonella poisoning from Illinois residents who ate a Jimmy John's sandwich.

On Monday the company announced it would not remove the sprouts because there had been no “official warnings” from the Illinois Department of Public Health, but Jimmy John sent a letter to franchises Tuesday instructing them to pull the sprouts as a precautionary measure.

Reports in Illinois have come from residents of Cook, McHenry, Will, Kankakee, Champaign, Peoria, Adams, McLean and Winnebago counties, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

The main supplier of Jimmy John's sprouts was tested on Friday and came up negative and all stores have come up negative so far, according to the company.

The health department has asked the company to test food-handling employees at two Champaign locations.

Earlier numbers of reported cased provided by the department of public health announced 46 reports of salmonella poisoning, but those numbers were reported cases and not necessarily confirmed. As of Tuesday, there were 43 confirmed cases in Illinois and one in Wisconsin. Jimmy John's letter to franchises reported that the outbreak has spread across 15 states.

Symptoms of salmonella exposure include diarrhea, vomiting, fever and stomach cramps, and typically develop within six to 72 hour after contact with the bacteria. They generally last three to seven days. The state recommends contacting a doctor and local health department after becoming ill from eating alfalfa sprouts.