The state Department of Health yesterday recommended that consumers avoid eating alfalfa sprouts, including sprout blends containing alfalfa, until further notice because the product has been linked to a salmonella contamination on the Mainland.

The warning follows a recommendation issued yesterday by the U.S Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Although there have been no confirmed salmonella cases attributable to alfalfa sprouts in Hawai'i, the Department of Health's Food and Drug Branch will be taking samples from local alfalfa sprout growers for testing. There are sprout growers on every island in Hawai'i.

Salmonella is an organism that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Healthy individuals infected with salmonella often experience fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.

The FDA has detailed information on reducing microbial safety hazards for sprouted seeds at: www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/sprougd1.html