• Cucumbers grown by Bedner Growers and distributed by Fresh Start Produce Sales are being recalled due to a salmonella outbreak.
• The outbreak has affected over 20 people across 15 states, including Tennessee.
• According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, no deaths have been reported.

Cucumbers are being recalled nationwide after a salmonella outbreak sickened 26 people and hospitalized nine across 15 states, including Tennessee. On May 19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that the outbreak has been linked to cucumbers grown by Florida-based Bedner Growers and distributed by Fresh Start Produce Sales.

As part of a follow-up inspection in April 2025, FDA investigators collected an environmental sample from Bedner Growers that tested positive for salmonella and matched recent clinical samples from ill people, reported USA TODAY.

In Tennessee, the outbreak has sickened between 1-2 people, according to the FDA. No deaths have been reported so far.

Here’s what else to know.

What cucumbers are recalled?

Bedner Growers is voluntarily recalling cucumbers sold at Bedner’s Farm Fresh Market between April 29 and May 14, 2025. Cucumbers may have been sold “individually or in smaller packages,” wrote the FDA, and with or without a label that may not bear the same brand, product name or best by date.

The product was also sold to retailers, distribution centers, wholesalers, and food service distributors throughout spring. The agency did not identify specifically where the cucumbers were sold. According to the FDA, the products were labeled as either being “supers,” “selects,” or “plains” for distributors, restaurants and retailers who purchased the cucumbers.

“Do not sell or serve whole cucumbers grown by Bedner Growers Inc. and distributed by Fresh Start Produce Inc. between April 29, 2025 to May 19, 2025,” the FDA wrote.

What to do if you think you may have recalled cucumbers

According to the FDA, if you have cucumbers at home and can’t tell where they are from, throw them away. When eating out over the next week, consumers should ask if cucumbers were from Bedner Growers or Fresh Start Produce Sales Inc.

The FDA also advises thoroughly cleaning any surfaces or utensils that may have come into contact with cucumbers using hot, soapy water or a dishwasher.

Businesses should not sell or serve cucumbers grown by Bedner Growers and distributed by Fresh Start Produce Inc. between April 29 and May 19, 2025. They are also urged to sanitize all potentially contaminated areas and notify customers if they may have purchased the affected cucumbers.

What states are affected by the salmonella outbreak? See complete list

As of May 20, the salmonella outbreak linked to cucumbers has sickened 26 people in the following 15 states:

• Alabama
• California
• Colorado
• Florida
• Illinois
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Michigan
• North Carolina
• New York
• Ohio
• Pennsylvania
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Virginia 

Symptoms of salmonella infection

According to the FDA, illness usually occurs within 12 to 72 hours after eating food that is contaminated with salmonella, and the symptoms usually last four to seven days. Symptoms include diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps.

Children younger than five, the elderly, and people with weakened immune systems are more likely to have severe infections, the FDA says. Contact your healthcare provider immediately if you think you may have symptoms of a salmonella infection.

Contributing: USA TODAY

Diana Leyva covers trending news and service journalism for The Tennessean. Contact her at Dleyva@gannett.com or follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @_leyvadiana

Danny White was named the Athletic Director of the Year by Sports Business Journal, the first in University of Tennessee history to take home the national honor.

White was presented the accolade at the Sports Business Awards event in New York City on May 21. The award recognizes UT’s tremendous revenue growth and athletics success under his watch.

White and his father, Kevin, are the first father-son duo to win the SBJ Athletic Director of the Year award, which was first given in 2000. Kevin White received the accolade in 2014 during his tenure at Duke.

“Danny’s impact on our campus and in the changing world of intercollegiate athletics has been transformational, and I am thrilled for his leadership to be recognized as the SBJ Athletic Director of the Year,” UT Chancellor Donde Plowman said in a university release. “Danny sets the tone with his competitive drive, strategic approach and problem-solving mindset, and has built an incredible team of athletics administrators committed to supporting student-athletes and winning with integrity. The culture he has built at Tennessee is truly special.”

White was the highest-paid athletics director at a public university in the country, based on the most recent documents obtained by USA TODAY Network in 2024. That distinction came after he signed a contract extension that pays him at least $2.75 million annually.

Tennessee winning reached new heights under Danny White

But White appears to have earned his keep since being hired at UT in 2021.

In 2023-24, UT finished third in the Learfield Directors’ Cup all-sports standings, the best in school history, and won a third straight SEC All-Sports Trophy. It capped the most successful year in Vols sports history.

In 2024, UT became only the second school ever to appear in the College Football Playoff, NCAA basketball tournament Elite Eight and the College World Series in the same year. UT baseball won its first national title.

All 20 UT sports are on pace to reach the NCAA postseason in 2024-25 for a second straight year. According to UT, that would make it the first Power Four conference school to achieve that feat in back-to-back years.

Tennessee revenue growth broke records under White

Since White arrived at UT in 2021, the athletics budget has grown by almost $100 million.

UT broke a revenue record with $202 million in the 2023 fiscal year. Then it broke the record again with $234 million in revenue generated in the 2024 fiscal year.

Ticket revenue and contributions also hit record highs under White’s watch during a skyrocketing surge of growth. And major facility upgrades are underway at Neyland Stadium, Lindsey Nelson Stadium, Sherri Parker Lee Stadium, Anderson Training Center, Food City Center and Neyland Entertainment District as a developmental project.

Here are SBJ Athletic Directors of the Year winners

• 2000: Lew Perkins, UConn
• 2001: Ted Leland, Stanford
• 2002: Bob Bowlsby, Iowa
• 2003: Andy Geiger, Ohio State
• 2004: Eric Hyman, TCU
• 2005: DeLoss Dodds, Texas
• 2006: Jeremy Foley, Florida
• 2007: Tom Jurich, Louisville
• 2008: Ron Wellman, Wake Forest
• 2009: Joe Castiglione, Oklahoma
• 2010: Gene Smith, Ohio State
• 2011: DeLoss Dodds, Texas
• 2012 — Mark Hollis, Michigan State University
• 2013 — Mal Moore, University of Alabama
• 2014: Kevin White, Duke
• 2015: Jeff Long, Arkansas
• 2016: Gene Smith, Ohio State
• 2017: Dan Radakovich, Clemson
• 2018: Jim Phillips, Northwestern
• 2019: Mitch Barnhart, Kentucky
• 2020: Scott Stricklin, Florida
• 2021: Mack Rhoades, Baylor
• 2022: Sandy Barbour, Penn State
• 2023: J.D. Wicker, San Diego State
• 2024: Chris Del Conte, Texas
• 2025: Danny White, Tennessee

Adam Sparks is the Tennessee football beat reporter. Email adam.sparks@knoxnews.com. X, formerly known as Twitter@AdamSparks. Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Just over three years ago, Oscar Smith came within minutes of being executed before Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee issued a surprise reprieve that revealed problems with the lethal injection drugs. On Thursday, the state is prepared to try again.

Asked in a recent phone interview about coming so close to death in 2022, Smith declined to reflect very deeply on it but instead expressed a wish that Lee had not intervened, saying the past three years on death row have been “more than hell.” Without going into specifics, he said conditions at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Tennessee, have deteriorated, and he accused its officials of not following policies.

Smith, 75, said he asked his family to stay away on Thursday and not witness his execution because “they don’t need to see anything like that.”

Smith was convicted of fatally stabbing and shooting his estranged wife, Judith Smith, and her sons, Jason and Chad, 13 and 16, at their Nashville home on Oct. 1, 1989. A Davidson County jury sentenced him to death the following year.

Some relatives of Smith’s victims do plan to attend the execution, Tennessee Department of Correction spokesperson Dorinda Carter said in an email. The Associated Press requested to interview relatives through the Tennessee Attorney General’s victim services office, but no one agreed to be interviewed.

“My own personal minister will be with me in the execution chamber with her hand on my shoulder praying,” Smith said. He is grateful for that, but also worried about her.

“I’m having a real hard time adjusting to the idea of having a young lady in the execution chamber,” he said. “She doesn’t need any bad experiences.”

Smith will be the first Tennessee inmate to be executed under a new lethal injection process released in late December that uses a single dose of the barbiturate pentobarbital. While the method is new to Tennessee, it has been used by other states and the federal government.

A review of the drug under President Joe Biden’s administration led then-Attorney General Merrick Garland to halt its use in federal executions, finding it had the potential to cause “ unnecessary pain and suffering.” New Attorney General Pam Bondi has ordered the Justice Department to reconsider that decision.

Smith is suing Tennessee over the update to the execution protocols, arguing TDOC failed to follow the recommendations of a yearlong independent investigation called for by Lee in 2022. However, that trial is not until next January — too late to change anything for Smith. Only Lee has the power to stop the execution. He said on Tuesday that he plans to let it go forward.

While lethal injection is the state’s preferred method of execution, some Tennessee inmates in recent years have exercised the option of death in the electric chair, expressing the opinion that it would be quicker and less painful. Smith, too, had the option to choose the electric chair, but declined to make a choice.

“Because of my religious beliefs, I wouldn’t participate or sign anything,” he said. “I was taught that taking your own life, or having anything to do with it, is a sin.”

Smith has continued to claim that he is innocent. In a phone interview on May 7 — shortly before he was to begin a 14-day period of relative isolation that is part of the new Tennessee execution protocol — Smith mostly wanted to discuss his case and the various ways he feels his trial was unfair.

In 2022, a Davidson County Criminal Court judge denied requests to reopen his case after a new type of DNA analysis found the DNA of an unknown person on one of the murder weapons.

“Now that I could rebut everything they used against me, the courts don’t want to hear it,” is the way Smith sees it. He says he wants a new trial and “to be found truly innocent by a jury of my peers.”

However, the judge who declined to reopen his case found the evidence of Smith’s guilt extensive, citing prior threats and a life insurance policy taken out by Smith for the three victims.

Speaking about the execution, Smith said, “It sounds like we’re going back to medieval times, to the gladiators. People want to see blood sports.

“Why anyone wants to see anyone being killed, I don’t understand it. We’re supposed to be a civilized country.”

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