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Subscribe to RSSU.S. health officials have identified Chamberlain Farm Produce Inc. of Owensville, Ind., as one possible source of cantaloupes tied to an outbreak of salmonella food poisoning that now has sickened 178 people in 21 states. Two people have died.
Federal Food and Drug Administration officials warned late Wednesday that consumers should not eat melons from the previously unidentified farm.
FDA officials were under pressure from food safety advocates to release the name of the grower that now has voluntarily recalled the rest of this year’s cantaloupe crop because of detection of a strain of salmonella Typhimurium.
The two deaths occurred in Kentucky. Sixty-two people have been hospitalized nationwide after eating salmonella-tainted fruit, officials said.
FDA officials added that the investigation into the outbreak is continuing and that other possible sources could be identified.
The cantaloupe in question was shipped to seven states – Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, Ohio, Illinois and Wisconsin – though further shipment was likely.
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C'mon, tell us the whole truth. A field nearby was fertilized with human waste, just like happened last time in Colorado, right?
Why is it that states with lax regulation seem to be the ones that end up with tainted produce?
Duh!
Small farms are by and large exempt from the regulations of large farms, just as small business is exempt from regulations effecting large business. But, as you may have guessed, the government exempts itself from regulations that we have to live with.
Were this a factory farm there would be an inspector behind every bush.
Seven States? Last I read cases were reported in close to twenty. Pinget if a farm doesn't have enough functional port a potties where do you think the migrants piss and s**t.
I still want to know the names of the stores that may be distributing these cantaloupes so I know where not to buy them. I do not know what the FDA's problem is. Meanwhile the whole cantaloupe industry suffers because people are afraid of buying them anywhere.
No, that is not the case. When this happened in Colorado, the field next to it was being fertilized with human waste shipped out there from New York City. You can't make this stuff up. http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/29274403/detail.html
Pinget: My basic point. "Where are they being sold? Where can I find a safe place to buy cantaloupe? Why won't the FDA tell us those who is selling the questionable stuff? Why can't Obama make a phone call and tell them to let the information out? Is he so busy campaigning that he has not heard of this and a whole industry is in trouble. People are not buying cantaloupe anywhere - period. Why do the consumers, farm markets, non-effected stores, and the entire cantaloupe industry have to suffer due to the Executive's Branch's silence on the matter?
Is this a question as to how much Giant Eagle or other grocery chain donated to Obama's campaign? I don't believe that, and I hope it's not true, but I'm starting to think in that direction.
gil you are 100% right about the porta johns. this did not happen until the big change in who picks our produce. i will not buy anything grown outside the usa because they get away with more there. i worked for major home builders in the dc area. the porta john could be clean and outside the houses under construction so guess what they used!
Pinget: What does Colorado have to do with Indiana?
Lax regulations??? What about the stiff regulations in California??? There have been more salmonella case tracked back to CA. than anywhere.
@Gil:
You wrote this:
The answer here in the sound isolation studio is that cantaloupes have been off the Baldenario Approved for Novices Menu™ starting approximately seven years ago when Monsanto took control of Seminis . . .
However, this is a stellar year for the big, heavy, and long. light-green and dark-green striped, seeded watermelons grown in the Deep South, and in fact this is the best year for these watermelons in over a decade, which is due to the unusually warm winter and spring, as well as the dry and hot summer . . .
So, the best advice in the known universe continues to be to just say, "No!" to cantaloupes, all tropical fruit except bananas and Hawaiian pineapples, as well as all leafy vegetables during the spring continuing until leafy vegetable production moves to the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico in the fall where it stays until early spring, when it starts all over . . .
Fresh carrots, US and Peruvian onions, cauliflower, broccoli, avocados, US tomatoes, US tree fruit (apples, apricots, grapefruit, limes, nectarines, oranges, peaches, pears, plums, and pluots), and occasionally a few other fresh vegetables and fruit are sufficient, but everything else in these two sections of the food pyramid should be either canned or frozen and then cooked, where for fresh vegetables a little bit goes a long way, but fresh fruit is pretty much "all you can eat" . . .
With a few exceptions (see above), the general rule is that "If you didn't cook it for at last 10 minutes at 165-degrees Fahrenheit, then don't eat it!", for sure . . .
For sure!
And to think the Republicans want to gut regulations and the FDA so these things will not be found out. It hurts businesses when they have been found to be shipping tainted food so we have to stop the FDA!
The Republicans keep saying that the business threat from being responsible for foodborne illness is more than enough incentive for farms to voluntarily insure that food is safe. According to the Republicans, these outbreaks cannot happen because the almighty "market" will ensure food safety. Yet, they KEEP HAPPENING! Are the Republicans so insane that they cannot see the contradiction, or do they know they are lying about "the market" and just don't care who dies?
They should all read "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair.
Best case for food inspections EVER. (In fact, its publication is what led to the establishment of the FDA.)
If Obama gave a s**T about those cantaloupe growers who produce quality produce, and their employees, who are being hurt by the FDA's silence; he could resolve in a second with one phone call. What is his problem? Probably he never heard of it, or simply doesn't care, to busy campaigning.
Renne: In this capitalistic society, in which we live, supermarkets, and markets in general will no long buy from this farm again, unless it has proven to them that it has cleaned up it's act, which will be very difficult.
If any seller of produce sells contaminated food it is strictly liable (that means it has no defense) for cases brought for death or illness. The supermarket also faces the task of removing the stuff for the store and eating the cost of the waste. Why would they buy from this farm.
I do not think the FDA inspection process is flawed in this case. Samples are not sent to the CDC for inspection of microscopic pathagins My bitch with the FDA is that it won't tell us where not to buy cantaloupes.
Gil. I'm sure the president is doing all he can to micromanage each and every government agency. Nothing can happen without his express approval.
In the meanwhile in your capitalist society, the stores eagerly await news of illness and death so they will know where not to buy from.
Why should the FDA do anything, knowing that they will be shutdown as soon as possible if the Republicans get in the majority office? Obviously it is a waste of taxpayer dollars and preventing the job creators from making their due profits.
This is this first I've heard about this & my reaction is OMG not again!!! And I hate the way people use this horrible tradegy as political forum. Prayers to the family of the victims & to farmers everywhere, but something has to change.
That sucks! I was just eating some cantaloupe right now that I cut up last night when I stumbled upon this article...I hope Albertsons in San Diego doesn't get their cantaloupe from this farm! (Good cantaloupe though...)
Sounds like some civil lawsuits should shut this farm down or enforce what the lax regulations don't...or our FDA doesn't until after the fact....
All government agencies need to be audited from the top down. Revue computer usage and work accomplishment. You could start with the White House staff and work your way through the SEC, IRS, EPA, FDA, CIA, FBI. Then revue staffing levels and add or subtract personnel. I think the first thing should be to get rid of the floaters. How can you adjust budgets if you have no idea of what you have to start with. Employee revues are worthless if management is full of empire builders and control morons.
Send all your cantaloupe to africa...we iz hungry
Maybe this field was fertilized with powdered human waste from Chicago, or Los Angeles, or New York, or any of the major cities that cannot handle the vast amount of feces that go through their water treatment plants.
But by all means, let's bring in a few million more refugees and immigrants, legal and illegal, that we don't have the infrastructure in place for.
Bring them in over here, kill a few citizens over there, it's all a balancing act and no one understands the hands on the scales.
Do people know to wash you cantaloupe with soap and water before cutting into it? Also, DO NOT put the cantaloupe wi
th the rind in the refrig. Throw the rind away. You can also buy vegetable/fruit wash similar to what they use in Mexico to kill the bacteria. We need to realize we might need to do this for our safety and our chidlren's safetyWOW...this country's corporations do SUCH a good job of protecting the public (who buys their stuff) from filth. I am so very sick of reading about the sickness these people expose us to. How about suing them for all medical bills? With so many people uninsured...it only seems fair. Unless someone out there wants to actually say uninsured people deserve to get sick and die? Let's hear it for all those corporate types who will say...IT'S NOT OUR FAULT WE SELL FILTHY PRODUCTS...it's your fault for believing in us and buying our stuff. Come on...big boys and girls...HMMM
This is why I always thoroughly wash my produce - because of field workers who go to the bathroom without washing their hands. Most outbreaks are due to poor sanitation; filthy people.
Where will the worker who is the salmonella carrier work next? There may be another explanation found, but the bacteria coming off the worker is fairly likely. I try to buy melons from as local a source as possible. Scald and scrub the area to be cut, wash the knife well before each cut or scoop out the meat. Food is not easy these days. Perhaps Despommier's vertical, LED, hydroponic, germ free gardens where the moonsuited employees don't need to bend to harvest will make things better. The vegetables should be able to be picked the day they are eaten and not require much diesel to transport.
I am a Consumer Safety Inspector for the USDA and previously a Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Inspector for the State of Washington, Please people wash your food! In the case of the cantalope the salmonella is on the outside, if not washed when you cut it you are introducing it to the flesh. The Goverment cuts that the prez has been making to look good are not the high paying officials they would like you to think are being affected it is us. We were just notified we are getting another increase in our insurance, 800 MORE inspectors to lose their jobs and trying to push privatized inspection on the Meat and Poultry plants, alot of fruit and veggies are already privately inspected (plant personel NOT inspectors). People think we are rolling in the money from our paychecks but in reality we are not. I put in 400 hrs of overtime last year to clear 45k. We work crazy long hours and are understaffed and yet we are the fall guys when a recall comes about. Salmonella is present in every kind of feces so if a farm says it is "organic" guess what it is using for fertalizer? Fecal material. WASH YOUR MEAT AND PRODUCE!!!
Oh, Ill wash my meat alright.
And if the Republicans have their way, the FDA will be gutted, so we won't even find out about this kind of thing occurring.
None of these poison outbreaks started until the current and former presidents started allowing anything from mexico into our country to do the grunt work for the big corporations.
This is the DIRECT FAULT of corrupt wall street, our extremely corrupt politicians in crooked washington and the big bankers who make billions off of the cheap labor their clients hire.
Too bad wall street, the corrupt pig bankers and wall street can't be served up a few hundred pounds of the salmonella poisoned fish.