Dozens sickened in new multistate salmonella outbreak, this time traced to pre-cut melons

[DonViejo]

Source: The Washington Post


By Avi Selk
June 9 at 11:48 AM

At least 60 people have been sickened and dozens have been hospitalized with salmonella after tainted pre-cut melons were distributed to stores such as Walmart, Kroger, Costco and Whole Foods in several states, federal officials said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention traced the outbreak to a Caito Foods facility in Indiana. The company has since issued a recall notice in Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio — removing clear plastic containers of watermelon, honeydew, cantaloupe and mixed melons from the shelves.

The recall affected at least 10 large grocery chains, including Whole Foods, which is a subsidiary of Amazon.com, whose chief executive, Jeffrey P. Bezos, owns The Washington Post.

“The investigation is ongoing to determine if products went to additional stores or states,” the CDC wrote Friday.



Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/06/09/dozens-sickened-in-new-salmonella-outbreak-this-time-traced-to-pre-cut-melons/

[question everything]

1. Oh no. Got ours at the local store, finsihed yesterday

so am hoping that ours was not.

Not in an affected state, though.

[LiberalArkie]

2. I am at the point of believing that fresh foos should only be consumed by those who have

live in doctors.

[Hekate]

4. These are pre-cut melons

[Westcoast52]

5. Hispanics Largely Dominate Food-Processing/Cannery Work

My fault for not clarifying my point.

[krepitch]

6. Factory Farms

I would bet that this is just the latest outbreak due to factory farming.

The intensive farming practices produce so much animal waste that there's no place for it to go and it gets dumped into the water supply and literally sprayed onto crops. It's ridiculous that CAFOs are allowed to do this, but here we are.

"All of the e. coli and salmonella food outbreaks by the US Centers for Disease Control in 2017 originated from non-animal products, likely the result of food crops being contaminated with manure or manure-tainted water."

Report Available at https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/insight/urgent-case-ban-factory-farms

An older article from the Atlantic:

"Put simply, the cause of the current salmonella outbreak is industrial-scale factory farming, which has also been the cause of virtually every instance of bacterial food contamination the country has experienced in recent years."

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2010/09/where-the-salmonella-really-came-from/62585/

[HeartachesNhangovers]

7. Pre-cut melons? A moist, exposed food surface

handled by unknown people in an unknown environment?

There's no way I'd buy something like that. Or supermarket "sushi", or pre-bagged lettuce. I'm as lazy as they come, but my common sense usually prevails over my laziness.

[Bayard]

8. Who buys part of a watermelon?

I buy a whole one, and its gone in 2 days, just me eating it (until my garden ones come in).