Outbreak linked to Chamberlain Farms cantaloupe

08/22/2012 11:09:00 PM
Coral Beach

For related coverage see "Recalled Chamberlain cantaloupes did not have lot numbers."

(UPDATED COVERAGE, Aug. 23, 12:30 p.m.) An official recall notice for Chamberlain Farms cantaloupes linked to an ongoing multi-state salmonella outbreak that has killed two lists the locations of retailers and wholesalers who bought the fruit.

Owner Tim Chamberlain said the FDA is still working on compiling a list of names of retailers who received and sold the suspect cantaloupes. He did not say why he didn't issue an official recall Aug. 16 when he voluntarily began withdrawing his cantaloupes from the supply chain.

"We wanted to be pro-active and work with the government," Chamberlain said when reached at noon Aug. 23.

"We voluntarily withdrew our product and went out and picked it up and disposed of it."

Chamberlain said he had planted about 100 acres of cantaloupe for this season. He said he wasn't sure how many melons he had shipped or how many acres were left unharvested when he stopped distribution for the season. He said the farm was incorporated in 2004 and has grown cantaloupe every year since then.

Food and Drug Administration officials posted the Chamberlain recall notice on the agency's recall Web page Aug. 23, about 12 hours after issuing a press release naming Chamberlain Farms, Owensville, Ind., as the grower linked to the outbreak.

"Chamberlain Farm Produce Inc. marketed cantaloupes to four retail grocery stores with grocery store retail outlets in Vanderburgh, Warrick, Gibson, and Dubois County, Indiana, and Wabash County, Illinois; and also to four wholesale purchasers located in Owensboro, Ky., St. Louis, Peru, Ill., and Durant, Iowa, respectively," the recall notice states.

The notice also said the grower notified all of the purchasers of its cantaloupes to take immediate action to remove all Chamberlain cantaloupes from the marketplace, "and all of the purchasers confirmed compliance with that request."

Federal officials named Chamberlain Farms, Owensville, Ind., in a cantaloupe recall news release issued late Aug. 22, increasing the number of confirmed illnesses to 178.

Comments (12) Leave a comment 

It looks like locally grown turned out to be a very bad choice this time. Were these grown organically like the deadly outbreak last year that killed 35 people?

I want to know what their irrigation source is. I found their address, but google maps can't seem to pinpoint the exact location. The general area of their farm is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. There might be some streams or retention ponds nearby, so those may be their water source. If they are not decontaminating the water, then that would be a likely source of bacteria. SO MANY farms are spraying pond/retention/reclaimed/canal water on their crops with ZERO decontamination! Unless you have a fresh water well that has been demonstrated to be free from any bacteria, you better be decontaminating your irrigation/spray water!

Lori,

They are not GM cantaloupe. There is no GM cantaloupe on the market, and GM fruits/vegetables are extremely rare. The Packer doesn't mention this in our coverage is because it is not an issue in this case.

As for fertilizers/pesticides, I've never heard of their use leading to the presence of salmonella or other pathogens.

The FDA and the grower have not said anything about the possibility of the salmonella originating from any other location.

Chris Koger
News Editor

I'm at a loss at to why The Packer and the news media plastered Burch Farms all over everywhere immediately after finding the one cantaloupe and they didn't even release Chamberlain Farms name until a week later after several people were DEAD and over 100 in the hospital. Makes you scratch your head and wonder who is pushing this.

Anon,

Please pull up any story from The Packer or other news media that was written before late Aug. 22. As they all state, the FDA would not release the name of the grower. The Packer posted a story naming Chamberlain Farms within the hour of FDA releasing it late Aug. 22. This was less than a week after the initial report of the outbreak.

According to the FDA, the name was withheld while the investigation continued. It's safe to assume that the FDA decided to wait until it was 100% certain Chamberlain was a source of the salmonella. The agency continues to investigate whether there are other sources.

Publishing the name of a company before we have FDA confirmation would be reckless.

Chris Koger
News Editor

I just ate cantaloupe all week and it was delicious. I will buy more soon to support these poor cantaloupe growers. People's immune systems arent what they used to be.

There is no, nor has there ever been, any GMO melons brought to market in the United States. The melons you buys today are hybrids, not GMO. Hybrids are bred by means of cross-pollination, whereas GMO is created in a lab setting and involved modifying gene strands. You can see for yourself at gmo-compass.org where they have a database of all GMO currently being grown and sold.

The question is, organically grown or not? Jumping to conclusions about GMO possibilities is not realistic. Salmonella is nearly always from organic manure fertilizers. The question I cannot discover is, Were they organically grown??? That's where you most often run into the salmonella problems.

The outbreak last year was from a conventional farm, not organic.

Thats incorrect. Last years outbreak was at Jensen Fams near Holly, Colorado, a certified organic farm. The worst outbreak in US history in which 30 people died!! No one has identified the field or linked the illness to a organic field, but you can draw you own conclusions given Jensen is an organic farm and uses organic procedures and organic products for fertilizers, as their spokeswoman openly admitted.

You are both wrong, Jensen Farms was on transitional ground. Essentially everything was being treated organically. A grower must "transition" the ground for 3 years before the comoodity grown in that ground can market as organic.

Most of the commentors here seem to not have much of a grasp on produce production . . . ..