--- title: Jalepeno Peppers Responsible for Salmonella Outbreak at Chipotle and QDOBA - 431 Sickened in 32 States date: 2026-08-04T11:25:00-07:00 author: Bill Marler canonical_url: "https://marlerclark.com/chipotle-linked-to-salmonella-outbreak-tied-to-peppers" section: Litigation Landing Pages --- [Foodborne Illnesses](/foodborne-illnesses) / [Salmonella](https://marlerclark.com/foodborne-illnesses/salmonella) / # Jalepeno Peppers Responsible for Salmonella Outbreak at Chipotle and QDOBA - 431 Sickened in 32 States ![](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/marlerclarkcom-publications-pdfs/where-sick-people-lived-2026-08-25-2.png)As of August 21, 2026, the CDC posted those sickened by jalapeños to be 431 people sick in 32 states, 57 hospitalized — there have been no deaths. Illnesses began between June 19 and August 2. Of 191 people interviewed, 177 reported eating at a Mexican-style restaurant, Chipotle and QDOBA among them. Investigators identified twenty-seven separate illness clusters at Chipotle and QDOBA locations across seven states. ![](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/marlerclarkcom-publications-pdfs/Picture1.png)Epidemiologic and traceback data show that jalapeño peppers from Sinaloa, Mexico, distributed by Coast Citrus Distributors, may be contaminated with *Salmonella* Javiana and are making people sick. CDC published the state-by-state breakdown along with it. **State****Ill****State****Ill**Alabama2 North Carolina3Arkansas1North Dakota1California1Nebraska6 Colorado118Ohio3 Georgia28 Oklahoma9 Illinois33South Carolina8 Indiana6Tennessee8 Kansas14Texas4 Kentucky1Utah1Louisiana1Virginia2Michigan5 Washington1Minnesota129Wisconsin12 Missouri8 Wyoming7 Montana8 New states reporting cases not included in the chart are: NM (4), WV (2), PA (2), ND (2),NJ (1),FL (1). On August 3 the public count was [212 with no product named](https://www.marlerblog.com/case-news/at-least-212-sick-with-salmonella-javiana-from-jalapenos-two-states-confirmed-and-nobody-will-yet-name-the-grower-here-are-the-questions-somebody-should-have-to-answer/), and I laid out twenty-five years of Javiana history pointing straight at produce. On August 4 [Chipotle pulled jalapeños after 110 fell ill in Minnesota](https://www.marlerblog.com/case-news/chipotle-pulled-jalapenos-after-110-fell-ill-in-minnesota-with-salmonella-fda-and-cdc-still-say-nothing/) and both federal agencies said nothing. That evening the scoreboard read [Minnesota 110, Colorado 110, FDA 212](https://www.marlerblog.com/case-news/minnesota-says-110-colorado-says-110-fda-says-212-what-we-know-and-what-we-do-not-about-two-states-and-one-salmonella-outbreak/), two states adding up to more than the national count. This afternoon Bloomberg reported that Qdoba had pulled jalapeños from more than eight hundred restaurants. In seventy-two hours the public number went from 212 to 345 and the public state count went from two to twenty-seven. Almost none of that is new illness. The last onset date in CDC’s own table is August 2. These people were already sick. What changed was disclosure, and it changed only after two restaurant companies and two Bloomberg reporters forced the issue. A few things in the CDC data deserve more attention than they will get. The commonly reported ingredients in those clusters were jalapeño peppers, red onion, cilantro, and avocado. Jalapeños are the lead, and the traceback supports it. But three other raw items are still sitting in that sentence, and anyone who lived through 2008 knows what it costs to lock onto one commodity too early — or, for that matter, onto the wrong one. Investigators chased tomatoes for months that summer while [1,442 people got sick](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18756191/) and the domestic tomato market was destroyed, and the [New England Journal of Medicine account](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1005741) later established that jalapeños were implicated in every restaurant cluster with an identified ingredient, with the outbreak strain recovered from a jalapeño in Texas and from irrigation water and a serrano pepper on a Mexican farm. The count is going up. CDC says so itself: it takes three to four weeks to determine whether a sick person belongs to an outbreak, and many people never get tested at all. **Here is what should happen in this outbreak** Name the grower. FDA has the name. The agency’s own standard is that it will not name a specific product until there is sufficient evidence to implicate it — and CDC just published the implication. Whatever threshold FDA set for itself has been met by its sister agency in public. Publish the recall. If jalapeños have been recalled, there must be a notice with firm names, lot codes, ship dates and consignees. If they have not been recalled, then CDC should not be telling businesses to check for recalled product, and FDA should explain why a product identified as the likely source of 345 illnesses is still legally in commerce. Publish the distribution list. Chipotle and QDOBA are two customers of one distributor. Coast Citrus serves a great many more. Every one of them is entitled to know today, and so is every person who ate at one of them in June. Update the table. Ref #1395 saying “Not Yet Identified” tonight is not a technicality. That table is what buyers, brokers, retailers and state agencies check. Leaving it stale while CDC names a distributor is how product keeps moving. One last thing, because it is the only genuinely good news here. This outbreak’s first illness began June 19. A distributor and a growing region were named on August 5 — about seven weeks. In 2008 the same commodity, the same country, and a nearly identical epidemiologic picture took the better part of a summer and cost the tomato industry hundreds of millions of dollars for nothing. Faster is real progress and the people who did that work deserve to hear it said. It is still not fast enough, and it is still not finished, because a grower in Sinaloa whose peppers put thirty-six people in the hospital has a name, and tonight the only people who know it are the ones who do not have to say it. ***Salmonella*** *Salmonella* sickens more than a million Americans every year and is the leading cause of hospitalizations and deaths among foodborne bacteria. Its reach is remarkable—it turns up in produce, poultry, pantry staples, and pet food alike. [Marler Clark, The Food Safety Law Firm](https://marlerclark.com/), is the nation’s leading firm representing victims of [*Salmonella*](https://about-salmonella.com/) outbreaks. Our [*Salmonella* lawyers](https://marlerclark.com/food-litigation/salmonella-outbreak-litigation) 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 tied [*Salmonella*](https://about-salmonella.com/) outbreaks to cantaloupe, tomatoes, ground turkey, salami, sprouts, cereal, peanut butter, and restaurant meals, and we have brought cases against Cargill, ConAgra, Peanut Corporation of America, Sheetz, Taco Bell, Subway, and Wal-Mart. The Peanut Corporation of America outbreak ended in federal criminal convictions, with the company’s owner sentenced to twenty-eight years in prison. We are also pressing the federal government to treat *Salmonella* as an adulterant on raw chicken, so that contaminated poultry can be kept off store shelves the way dangerous *E. coli* already is. If you or a family member became ill with a [*Salmonella*](https://about-salmonella.com/) infection—including lasting complications such as [reactive arthritis](https://about-reactive-arthritis.com/) or [irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)](https://about-irritablebowelsyndrome.com/)—after eating contaminated food, contact the Marler Clark [*Salmonella*](https://about-salmonella.com/) attorneys for a free case evaluation. **FAQ** **What is *Salmonella*?** *Salmonella* is a group of bacteria behind one of the most common—and most deadly—foodborne infections in the United States, sickening more than a million people a year. Symptoms usually begin between 6 hours and 6 days after eating contaminated food and include diarrhea, fever, and stomach cramps that last four to seven days. **What foods cause *Salmonella* outbreaks?** Poultry, eggs, ground beef, produce, peanut butter, flour, and even pet food have all caused outbreaks. *Salmonella* can survive for months in dry, low-moisture foods. **Can a *Salmonella* infection cause long-term problems?** Yes. Some victims develop reactive arthritis—joint pain and swelling that can persist for months—or irritable bowel syndrome after the initial illness resolves. **Who is most at risk?** Young children, adults over 65, and people with weakened immune systems are the most likely to be hospitalized or to suffer severe, invasive infection. **Can I sue for a *Salmonella* infection?** If your illness is linked to a contaminated product or a recognized outbreak, you may have a claim against those in the chain of distribution. A stool culture matching the outbreak strain is powerful evidence. ### Salmonella news and updates August 13, 2026 ###### [Salmonella and the 2026 Jalapeño Outbreak: Frequently Asked Questions](https://marlerclark.com/news_events/salmonella-and-the-2026-jalape%C3%B1o-outbreak-frequently-asked-questions) Marler Clark — The Food Safety Law Firm | Updated August 13, 2026 The questions below come in two parts. The first covers Salmonella generally … December 30, 2022 ###### [FDA weighs in on Sun Sprouts Salmonella Outbreak](https://marlerclark.com/news_events/fda-weighs-in-on-sun-sprouts-salmonella-outbreak) The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state and local partners, is investigating a … December 11, 2022 ###### [4 Restaurant Chains That Have Had Salmonella Outbreaks](https://marlerclark.com/news_events/4-restaurant-chains-that-have-had-salmonella-outbreaks) In late June of 2003, the Lake County Health Department (LCHD) was contacted by health care providers who had treated patients for Salmonellosis, and customers … [1. 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