CAL POLY - A Cal Poly student has filed a lawsuit asserting that she contracted E. coli bacteria from eating tainted alfalfa sprouts in the university's cafeteria.

Tammy Lee, an 18-year-old Cal Poly business major from San Jose, is the third person to sue over claims that food contaminated with the bacteria and served at the campus caused major illness.

Lee, the most recent plaintiff to file a lawsuit, says in the suit that she had to have an infected section of her intestinal tract removed last August.

She was unavailable for comment Tuesday.

She is seeking damages from Fuji Natural Foods, the firm that grew the contaminated alfalfa sprouts; San Luis Obispo-based All About Produce, which distributed the sprouts; and the Cal Poly Foundation, which runs the cafeteria.

Sig Haddad, Lee's attorney, says the case mirrors two other lawsuits filed last month.

Ashley Adams, a student at the university, also sued the produce companies and the foundation. Lacey Welborn, who was participating in a journalism conference at Cal Poly last year when she got sick, sued the two produce companies but not the foundation.

They both alleged that they contracted the bacteria from sprouts at the cafeteria.

But Haddad said it would not be prudent to compare the most recent case to the previous two.

"I won't say it was more or less severe," he said. "But she (Lee) had to have surgery" as a result.

In late July 2002, five people in SLO County contracted a dangerous strain of E. coli that can cause kidney failure, severe diarrhea, stomach cramps and, in rare cases, death.

Those cases and five others nationally caused the Food and Drug Administration to issue an advisory last October warning people not to eat lightly cooked or raw sprouts.