Trader Joe’s Tarragon Chicken Salad Wrap Named in E. Coli Lawsuit

• Two women hospitalized with E. coli O157:H7 sued Trader Joe’s on Oct. 15, alleging its Tarragon Chicken Salad Wraps made them sick in late August.
• The FDA counts 50 illnesses in an outbreak it links to a “multi-ingredient wrap with chicken,” without naming a brand, a maker or a store.
• There is no recall: the USDA says the wrap is past its shelf life and no longer for sale.

Trader Joe’s Tarragon Chicken Salad Wraps are named in the first lawsuit tied to a multistate E. coli O157:H7 outbreak that federal regulators have described only as a ready-to-eat chicken wrap. Two women filed the complaint on Thursday, Oct. 15, in federal court in Los Angeles.

The FDA’s Oct. 15 update raised the outbreak’s case count from 38 to 50. Neither the FDA nor the USDA has named the product, the manufacturer, the retailer or the states involved. Trader Joe’s has not publicly commented on the lawsuit.

What does the Trader Joe’s lawsuit say?

The plaintiffs are Gayle Gottlieb, of Pembroke, North Carolina, and Meaghan Egan Bright, of Somerville, Massachusetts. The complaint alleges that Tarragon Chicken Salad Wraps they bought at Trader Joe’s stores in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Allston, Massachusetts, were contaminated with E. coli O157:H7.

According to the complaint, both women were hospitalized, both infections were confirmed by lab tests, and both say their local health departments told them they were part of the multistate outbreak.

• Gottlieb bought three wraps in Myrtle Beach on Aug. 23 and ate the first on Aug. 27, according to the complaint. She went to an emergency room in Lumberton, North Carolina, on Aug. 30, went back the night she was discharged and was admitted to Scotland Memorial Hospital in Laurinburg on Sept. 2.
• Bright bought one wrap in Allston on Aug. 24 and ate it that day. She got sick on Aug. 27 and was hospitalized at Massachusetts General Hospital from Aug. 31 to Sept. 6.

North Carolina’s public-health record lists the source of Gottlieb’s illness as a “wrap from Trader Joe’s,” the complaint says. Bright’s doctors warned her she was at risk of hemolytic uremic syndrome, a complication of this infection that can lead to kidney failure.

“The public-health record connects the product to the illness. The complaint follows that evidence.”

Ilana Korchia, attorney for the plaintiffs

The suit, case No. 2:26-cv-12017 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, claims strict product liability, negligence, negligence per se and breach of implied warranty, and asks for a jury trial. The women are represented by Marler Clark, a Washington state firm that specializes in foodborne illness cases.

The allegations have not been tested in court, and the complaint does not name the company that made the wraps.

Why haven’t the FDA and USDA named the wrap?

Because of how the FDA’s outbreak table works. The agency lists only a product category until there is “sufficient evidence to implicate that product as a cause of illnesses.” Entry No. 1421, posted Sept. 23, reads “multi-ingredient wrap with chicken (suspect),” with the investigation active and the outbreak ongoing.

The FDA has started tracing the product back through the supply chain, inspecting and taking samples. The recall column for the outbreak is empty.

The wrap itself falls under the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, which regulates products made with meat and poultry. Its entry for the same outbreak, No. 2026-04, explains why nothing has been pulled from shelves:

The FSIS responds to outbreaks by posting recalls or public health alerts, according to the same page. For this one it has issued neither, with the wrap already off the market. The agency says it is working with the FDA to identify the contaminated ingredient and whether it went into other products.

Has this happened at Trader Joe’s before?

Yes. In November 2013, Glass Onion Catering, a Trader Joe’s supplier in Richmond, California, recalled about 181,620 pounds of salads and sandwich wraps made with chicken and ham after an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak. Two Trader Joe’s salads were on the list, and the recall came while 26 cases in three states were being counted.

That difference is the core of the lawyers’ argument now. Bill Marler, the firm’s managing partner, has drafted two citizen petitions asking the FDA to publish the name of any company implicated in an outbreak while the investigation is open, and the list of stores that received a recalled food.

The petitions also ask the FDA to classify every recall within 10 days and to treat any removal of an outbreak-linked food as a recall, whatever the company calls it. Marler said he is circulating both drafts for comment before filing them.

What should you do if you ate a Trader Joe’s chicken wrap?

The FDA asks anyone who thinks they got sick from food to talk to a health care provider and to give public health officials details of what they ate. That interview is how this outbreak was traced: both women learned the likely source when health department staff asked about their meals.

The wrap named in the lawsuit is past its shelf life, and the FSIS says the wrap identified in the investigation is no longer available for purchase.

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— Bruno Monteiro

Sources: Gottlieb and Bright v. Trader Joe’s Company, No. 2:26-cv-12017 (C.D. Cal., filed Oct. 15, 2026), as described in Marler Clark’s announcement (Oct. 16, 2026); FDA, Investigations of Foodborne Illness Outbreaks, ref. #1421 (content current as of Oct. 15, 2026); USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Outbreak Investigations: Response, 2026-04; FSIS recall of Glass Onion Catering products (November 2013). Images: Trader Joe’s; CDC/Janice Haney Carr; FDA; USDA FSIS.