Produce industry groups announced on Wednesday the publication of national food safety guidelines for cantaloupes, a start-to-finish guide developed through industry collaboration to advise growers on the best current cantaloupe-growing practices to avoid contamination of microbial pathogens. Cantaloupes have made headlines in recent years for being the source of two major foodborne illness outbreaks: the… Continue Reading
A Minnesota-based company is recalling its fresh cut fruit products because they contain cantaloupes that may be contaminated with Salmonella. Cut Fruit Express, Inc. of Inver Grove Heights, MN issued a voluntary recall of products distributed through September 5, 2012, because they were made with cantaloupes recalled by Fresno, CA-based DFI Marketing Thursday after a… Continue Reading
A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed in Louisiana’s 26th Judicial District Court in Bossier Parish on behalf of the estate of Francis Gilbert, who died after eating Colorado-grown cantaloupe last year that was contaminated with Listeria. The lawsuit, brought by the personal representative of the estate, Kathleen Buchanan, names the cantaloupe distributor, Frontera Produce,… Continue Reading
The Indiana farm whose cantaloupes were deemed the likely source of a nationwide Salmonella Typhumurium outbreak last month is now the suspected source of at least one other Salmonella outbreak linked to its cantaloupes and may be ground zero for yet a third Salmonella outbreak tied to watermelons grown there. In its first update on… Continue Reading
As many as one-half million California-grown cantaloupes were recalled Thursday “out of an abundance of caution” by Fresno-based DFI Marketing Inc. Most have already been consumed without any illnesses being associated with them. But a single sample in a test by USDA’ Microbiological Data Program (MDP) did come back positive for Salmonella and that prompted… Continue Reading
A small number of Walmart stores in undisclosed states carried cantaloupes from Chamberlain Farms, the farm suspected to be the source of a Salmonella outbreak that killed 2 people and sickened at least 204 in 22 states in July and August. No illnesses have been connected to cantaloupes purchased from Walmart, but a spokeswoman for… Continue Reading
Opinion
The unwritten rule in the produce industry is that a company should not market its product as safer than a competitor’s. The thinking is that once consumers get it in their heads that a fruit or vegetable is more safe, that means another is less safe, and then maybe they’ll avoid the commodity or category… Continue Reading
The strain of Salmonella that has now sickened 178 people in 21 states has been found on samples of cantaloupes from the southwestern Indiana farm previously suspected to be the source of the bacteria, confirming the link between the grower and the ongoing outbreak. Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that… Continue Reading
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has raised the official death toll of last year’s cantaloupe-linked Listeria outbreak from 30 to 33. Since the CDC issued its final outbreak report on December 8 2011, 3 more outbreak victims have died, but federal health officials had yet to confirm that these deaths were a… Continue Reading
Opinion
Tim Chamberlain seems like a nice enough guy. According to the Indianapolis Star he started growing cantaloupe and watermelon on an acre of land and now, 30 years later, he and his wife, Mia, have built Chamberlain Farms into a midsized melon-growing operation, with 500 acres and about 20 employees. The U.S. Food and Drug… Continue Reading
Our estimable publisher, Bill Marler, is a never-ending fountain of wisdom and expertise. And I ignore most of it (just kidding boss!). However, I must admit, he did get me thinking a couple weeks back when he began drawing red lines on the epi curve charts that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention… Continue Reading