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Subscribe to RSSFederal health inspectors have found unsanitary conditions at a North Carolina cantaloupe packing shed, leading to an expanded recall of melons that may be potentially contaminated with listeria.
Burch Equipment LLC of Faison, N.C., is pulling 188,902 melons from store shelves in 10 states because of possible contamination that can cause illness and death, particularly in the very young, the very old, pregnant women and those with health problems.
The company's voluntary recall comes nearly a year after one of the deadliest foodborne illness outbreaks in U.S. history, in which contaminated Colorado cantaloupes sickened at least 147 people, including at least 30 who died and one woman who had a miscarriage.
The new recall of 13,888 cases of whole Caribbean Gold cantaloupes follows an earlier recall of 580 cases of the summer fruit.
Burch officials originally identified the variety as Athena cantaloupes, but later revised that to indicate the recalled fruit are the Caribbean Gold variety.
Federal Food and Drug Administration officials and the North Carolina Department of Agriculture are conducting an ongoing inspection at Burch Farms. The FDA warned this week that consumers should not eat the summer melons, which carry a red Burch Farms label and the code PLU #4319.
The melons were shipped between July 15 and July 27 and distributed to retail stores in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia.
Consumers should discard the melons, the FDA said.
No illnesses have been reported in connection with the Burch Farms melons, according to a spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Listeria monocytogenes infections can cause symptoms including high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea.
But the possibility of another bout of contaminated cantaloupe has stunned at least one family affected by last year's listeria outbreak caused by Jensen Farms of Holly, Colo.
“It’s so frustrating. It’s unbelievable,” said Michelle Wakley-Paciorek, mother of Kendall Paciorek, now 10 months, who suffered a life-threatening listeria infection at birth because of the tainted cantaloupe. “I can’t even tell you. It’s making my eyes tear up, after what everybody’s been through.”
Dirty equipment, faulty sanitation and bad storage practices at Jensen Farms led to the deadly infections, federal officials concluded. The firm has filed for bankruptcy.
That outbreak led to industry-wide changes in and attention to cantaloupe safety protocols, said Kathy Means, vice president of public affairs for the Produce Marketing Association. Members of the Rocky Ford Growers Association in Colorado invested between $800,000 and $1 million in safety upgrades, said spokeswoman Diane Mulligan.
Means said she couldn’t speak to conditions at the Burch Farms site, but she said that produce growers take the problem “very seriously.”
“We’re always disappointed when anything leads to consumer concerns,” she said.
However, she noted that the contamination was detected, the affected melons were recalled and that no illnesses have been reported to date.
“We wouldn’t want to see anyone stop eating cantaloupe,” she said. “I am confident that the system is working.”
But Wakley-Paciorek said that she no longer buys any melon. To learn that unsanitary conditions were found at another cantaloupe packing shed less than a year after listeria nearly killed her newborn is dismaying beyond words, she said.
Kendall is developmentally delayed and requires the aid of three physical therapists to help repair the deficits caused by the listeria infection.
“It’s shocking that this could happen again,” she said.
Related stories on Vitals:
- Missed cantaloupe listeria strain tied to man's death; new crop in stores
- Dirty equipment blamed for deadly outbreak in cantaloupe
- Consumers couldn't have washed away cantaloupe contamination
Leave a Comment:
Is this what happens when Federal funding is cut, federal jobs are cut, etc? The food isn't even safe to eat? Ship those melons to the Republican convention since they think there is too much regulation already.
Actually the dems are running everything...soooooooo your comment has no merit.
The only way to guarantee non-effected food is to grow your own. Listeria can be found in several food source long before any humans touch the product. People use know these basic before they accepted the gov words as holy.
@sharriannie:
You wrote this:
Perhaps in your dreams, but the reality is that Republicans have a majority in the House of Representatives and Speaker of the House John Boehner (R, Ohio) is working diligently to take the title of "Do Nothing" from its current holder, former Senator Tom "Do Nothing" Daschle I(D, South Dakota), whose wife was and perhaps continues to be a lobbyist, which provides a clue to the depth of how "owned lock, stock and barrel" that pair were . . .
The current bunch of Republican sneaky weasels in the Congress are doing what Republicans at the dawn of the early-21st century do best, which is to say "Yes!" to every request written on the back of $100 bills by lobbyists but otherwise to say "No!" to everything that should be done for the people of our great nation, and the result is the most ineffective and incompetent Congress in this history of our great nation . . .
This Congress cannot even keep the United States Postal Service solvent, which is beyond mind-boggling, especially during what most likely soon will become the Greater Depression of the early-21st century, which will make the Great Depression of the 1930s appear in retrospect to have been the "best of times" . . .
And to avoid confusion, I am not suggesting that all the Democrats are wonderful human beings, because some of them are among the most obnoxious scoundrels on this planet, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid taking the prize in that category, but Democrats at least make some effort to work for the people of our great nation . . .
But yet another reality is that cantaloupes have not been on the Baldenario Approved for Novices Menu™ for years, so until there are significant changes, Baldenario's advice is to "Just say, 'No!'" when someone offers you cantaloupe . . .
On the other hand, this is a stellar year for watermelons grown in the Deep South, and by "stellar" I am referring to this year's crop being the best in over a decade, which is due primarily to an especially warm winter; an early start on the growing season; and increased stress on the watermelon vines caused by the unusual rain patterns, where it is useful to note that in contrast to other parts of our great nation, there usually are water wells and enough water for irrigation at key times during the growing cycle in some parts of the Deep South, and for reference the stellar watermelons are the big and long watermelons with light green and dark green stripes, not the "round" watermelons, which is fabulous . . .
Fabulous! :-)
Actually, food-borne related illnesses are at an all time low, so I guess we should quit spending all together, right?
Please, when you post such idiotic statements, you do more harm to your (pathetic) cause then good.
"Grow your own" you do realize that listeria is ubiquitous in soil, right?
Actually it indicates a soil problem. Chances are your backyard will not have this problem if you grow your own!
Alex: Grow up. Federal funding has nothing to do with this. You are simply a paranoid, spreading silly propaganda. BTW: Obama has had a year since the last outbreak. Why has he not issued one of his famous "executive orders" directed to the melon farmers. Where do the Republicans come into this? Obama had absolute control of the House and Senate for 2 years. Why did he not have the "Cantalope Protection Act" passed. Don't tell me it was a Republican filibuster. I'm sick of hearing that s**t.
Alex has a point. Whether you agree or not regulations are imposed to make something safer and/or protect people or the environment not to punish business. Romneys pledge to reduce regulations will if passed eliminate or remove programs designed to protect the public and/or environment.
“We wouldn’t want to see anyone stop eating cantaloupe,”
Well, obviously you're doing it wrong and need to shlt in your hat.
What takes over 2 weeks to do a recall. Wouldn't you say most have been eaten by now.
Well, germ warfair it's coming
Lysteria is a ground born, yes from the dirt bacteria. Proper handling, ie: take a scrub brush and under running water scrub the melon before even putting it in the refrigerator. Cut it with a clean knife on a clean cutting board. Be sure to refrigerate it and you should be fine. Such panic over something that can be prevented with proper food handling. Or is it that people are too lazy to take precautions with their food?
LOL...YES it is that people are lazy...or else there wouldn't be so many that have it!!!....You have answered your own question. Sad but true.
Nieka, do you even know what one of these melons look like? They are pourous covered with a natural netting with millions of crevices. It would be impossible to scrub properly with anything. A clean cutting board and clean knife would make little or no difference. Perhaps you are too lazy to read the article.
I wonder if irradiation would have made a difference.
Consider that many people eat melon that is already cut, in fruit salads, at salad bars and in containers they grab from the supermarket produce section with their lunches. Let's not blame the people who get sick of being "lazy." Spewing out sanctimonious, judgmental statements has never accomplished anything in the history of the world.
don't know what we will do if the GOP takes away the FDA in their cost cuttings so there won't be the safe guards we have now with food we buy...they want to cut a lot of the departments to cut cost like the EPA and others to save money but then no more safe guards...but it will save money for these company's and with their tax cuts they will hire more people...
Do you know anything about food processing, the relationship between processors and the Federal Government, or the way these govt. agencies are operated? Its hilarious you seem to think that the FDA and USDA are "keeping you safe". You are truly clueless.
"Its hilarious you seem to think that the FDA and USDA are "keeping you safe"."
Ted, Sweetie, it was a federal agency that discovered this contamination during an inspection. It's hilarious that you are apparently unable to read an article and comprehend its contents.
Find out if illegal aliens are working at Burch Farms. In fact, investigate the source of any food you buy for the presence of illegal aliens. Don't buy any food that has been touched by unclean 3rd world hands or butts. Obama ordered the INS to stop catching and deporting these diseased vermin. This is one of the results.
How many "Americans" do you think will go out in a field, especially in the heat of summer, and pick produce for eight hours each day? Go take a trip to a farm and watch the workers performing back breaking work so that we all have food in the air-conditioned supermarkets.
People would rather collect unemployment or welfare than do the work the people you call "vermin" are doing.
Once upon a time your relatives were the "vermin" you are referring to.
How many? Every one of them who wants to eat, soon as the government quits paying them not to work.
Once upon a time I grew up on the farm where I was born and worked the fields every day. There was no need for illegal aliens. Plenty of folks were willing to work the fields rather than starve. That was before the government started paying people not to work, of course.
You mean like they pay farmers NOT to grow crops.
Thats why a lot your farm food goes bad.
I ate a melon in Illinois and had some problems for days after. Don't know if that was the cause but I was wondering if it was before this article. When you have stomach issues sometimes you don't know what to blame it on. This article will make me wonder about the melon even more.
What's the big deal? I wash my mouth out with Listeria all the time.
Unforeseen occurances befell them all.
It was a little over a year and a half, January 4th, 2011, when President Obama signed the Food Safety Modernization Act. Yet, there seems to be a delay in the implementation of these safegaurds.
"Dirty equipment, faulty sanitation and bad storage practices at Jensen Farms led to the deadly infections, federal officials concluded. The firm has filed for bankruptcy.
That outbreak led to industry-wide changes in and attention to cantaloupe safety protocols, said Kathy Means, vice president of public affairs for the Produce Marketing Association. Members of the Rocky Ford Growers Association in Colorado invested between $800,000 and $1 million in safety upgrades, said spokeswoman Diane Mulligan."
Do we have to wait until hundreds of thousands of people become ill or even brought to death before changes are made in our food safety system? The FSMA is supposed to enhance tracing and tracking threats of contamination, however this is the second case of cantaloupe contamination within two years. I believe the FDA can improve food safety by actually implementing the Food Safety Modernization Act. (Whenever that happens.)
those 2 feds are crooked they keep tainting meat samples or calling it pink slime they are trying to cover up for they NYC sewer sludge disposal that contaminated the Colorado farm last year
I wonder how many mexicans worked at their farm.
Good way to keep from getting sued, file for bankruptcy, Seems they all do it when they get caught. Just open up under another name.
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