UPDATED: Indiana cantaloupe linked to multi-state outbreak

08/17/2012 2:03:27 PM
Coral Beach

"FDA officials are actively investigating potential sources of the outbreak, and will continue to update the public as more specific information becomes available," according to a statement on the FDA's Coordinated Outbreak and Response (CORE) Network website.

"In the course of their investigation, state officials in Kentucky and Indiana found evidence that they believe indicate cantaloupes grown in southwestern Indiana may be a source of the ongoing Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak," the FDA notice states.

As of Aug. 17, the FDA reported states included in the outbreak and the number of illnesses were: Alabama 7, Arkansas 3, California 2, Georgia 1, Illinois 17, Indiana 13, Iowa 7, Kentucky 50, Michigan 6, Minnesota 3, Missouri 9, Mississippi 2, New Jersey 1, North Carolina 3, Ohio 3, Pennsylvania 2, South Carolina 3, Tennessee 6, Texas 1 and Wisconsin 2.

The Indiana Department of Health issued a consumer alert Aug. 17 urging consumers to throw out all Indiana-grown cantaloupes they bought since July 7.

"The Indiana State Department of Health is investigating farms in Southwest Indiana as well as distributors and retailers, as potential sources of the outbreak," according to the alert.

Amy Reel, director of public affairs for the Indiana Department of Health, said one grower voluntarily began a "market withdrawl" and had stopped shipping cantaloupes.

"We don't call it a recall because it is voluntary and we don't want anyone to mistakenly think the grower is being forced to take this action," Reel said. "But the process has begun."

Indiana officials said 14 residents and more than 140 people nationwide have been sickened by the same strain of salmonella found in the Southwest Indiana cantaloupes.

Before Indiana's alert, Kentucky health officials announced they linked a salmonella outbreak to cantaloupes from Indiana.

Tennessee health officials said that at least six salmonella cases in the state are from the same strain. No cantaloupes grown in Tennessee or Kentucky have been linked to the outbreak.

"Cantaloupes grown on one farm have tested positive for the same type of salmonella causing illnesses in Tennessee and several other states," according to the alert from the Tennessee departments of health and agriculture.

State and federal officials apparently identified at least one Indiana grower whose cantaloupe have tested positive for the specific strain of salmonella, but the grower has not been named.

“It is an ongoing investigation so we are not yet releasing the names of any growers,” said Beth Fisher, public information officer with the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services.

Officials are not sure if any of the implicated cantaloupes are still available for sale, Fisher said.

The salmonella outbreak began in early July. Fisher said investigators linked it to cantaloupes from southwestern Indiana by patient interviews, lab tests on patients and tests of cantaloupes matching the specific strain of salmonella affecting Kentucky residents.

Comments (8) Leave a comment 

AH, Come on! what they need is ScoringAg's database traceback system. Only takes TWO seconds to find everyone of the handlers from field to fork! ScoringAg only costs $1.10 per field per year.

In a news release issued Aug. 17, Kentucky Public Health Commissioner Steve Davis said officials are working on the traceback of the cantaloupes to find the grower or growers and possible distribution locations.

Simple, Fast and FSMA complient as of today.

I agree... in addition, I think it's noteworthy that a lot of retailers completely lose the ability to trace product once it hits their warehouse and goes out to stores. Regardless of whether or not a vendor can trace to the pallet or to the case, or what stickers w/ info are used on the fruit, if the retailers don't do their part as well as growers, we're not doing our best as an industry to be able to act in these circumstances.

If product is out there and making people sick, then YES it IS a RECALL. It is only a "withdrawal" if it has not yet reached the consumer.
Also, along with what "vendor..." and "Anon"was saying, when will the RETAILERS start to have some food safety in their stores? How many nose-picking and butt-scratching customers are in the grocery aisles squeezing fruits and vegetables, with ZERO attention being paid to cleanliness. How many people have touched that RAW apple you are about to eat? And how many of THOSE people had just been handling a leaking package of raw chicken or raw ground beaf? Grocery stores have ZERO safeguards in place once the produce reaches their displays. How often do retailers clean their grocery carts? Was there just raw chicken juice in the same spot I set my bag of grapes, with the grapes touching the cart through the holes in the bag? How about at checkout when people put their produce on the dirty checkout conveyor, where there are moist spots that could very easily be from the leaky packages of meat the person in front of you just had?

PTI is only for some big chains to ring up the check-out register by replacing the PLU code with a GS1 code. There is no food-safety or traceability behind a GTIN number, only the amount and the size of the box. You can't even do a search of the barcode number to see who owns it or produced the product. It’s forcing something down to the growers that’s costly and doesn’t work for them. The barcode information is lost during distribution and no item-level traceback is provided on the sticker the size of my thumb nail. I wonder why the industry is not using the system described in the first comment by William Kanitz to save money and lives. John is right, food safety and traceability at the retail center should be practiced there first with clean and sanitary carts and shopping baskets, then go down to the wholesaler and see if he can trace it back. Us cantaloupe growers who do food safety are getting hammered!

John your point is valid but unfortunately not the case in this particular situation. This outbreak and many other like it are not happening in the retail stores but at the farms. Theses infected lopes are from one part of Indiana and possibly from one particular farm. This has nothing to do with the sanitary standards at the retail level.

There is no requirement that your traceability system needs to be overly complex, just comprehensive. More importantly, ScoringAg is not the only vendor with a useful solution. Look up TrueTrac, Harvest Mark, and Food LogiQ...they provide the similar utility.

As a point of clarification, PTI is a case level supply chain initiative, not point of sale product. It is driven by PMA, United and CPMA, but it has not acheived industry wide-support and in my opinion has questionable usefulness. By contrast, PLU stickers with barcodes work extremely well for identifying a shipper and for point of sale transactions. Depending upon the type of barcode used (e.g. DataBar or UPC), an incredible amount of information can be stored and trasferred with a simple scan. Most reputable shippers are using these stickers for identification and item level traceability. They need not be expensive either. GS1 registration is about $500 per year for up to 99 GTINs. Check with a local label vendor.

The California industry has been working diligently for years, calling on all domestic producers to act with regard to food safety. Unfortunately, many don’t listen and others don’t care. That being said, we have a much bigger issue on our hands that begins with the BUYER. Retailers, distributors and food service providers do set the standards, but should be responsible enough to buy products from approved suppliers. Despite science to the contrary, buyers continue to purchase cantaloupes from “at risk” growing regions and place more value on the cost of freight than the safety of the product. While the “buy local” movement may appeal to the customer, what is local may not always be safest. In my opinion, purchasing decisions should be based upon available science and the safety of the product.