Salmonella Outbreak in Pre- cut Melons

stothi · June 2018

https://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/adelaide-06-18/index.html

On June 8, 2018, Caito Foods, LLC recalled fresh cut watermelon, honeydew melon, cantaloupe, and fresh-cut fruit medley products containing one of these melons produced at the Caito Foods facility in Indianapolis, Indiana.
- Recalled products were distributed to Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, and Ohio.
- Recalled products were sold in clear, plastic clamshell containers at Costco, Jay C, Kroger, Payless, Owen’s, Sprouts, Trader Joe’s, Walgreens, Walmart, and Whole Foods/Amazon.
- The investigation is ongoing to determine if products went to additional stores or states.
Do not eat recalled products. Check your fridge and freezer for them and throw them away or return them to the place of purchase for a refund.
- If you don’t remember where you bought pre-cut melon, don’t eat it and throw it away.

ashh2018 · June 2018

Just saw this and was going to post - thanks for sharing!

[Deleted User] · June 2018

Bumping this up bc my coworker's husband jusy got sick after eating pre-cut pineapple. I even tried to warn her! Bc I know she doesn't like to fuss with cutting up pineapple. Who knows for sure if that was it, but he definitely got food poisoning, and she didn't, and that's the only thing they can think of that he was eating and she wasn't. :/

yosemite2018 · June 2018

BusinessWife said:

Bumping this up bc my coworker's husband jusy got sick after eating pre-cut pineapple. I even tried to warn her! Bc I know she doesn't like to fuss with cutting up pineapple. Who knows for sure if that was it, but he definitely got food poisoning, and she didn't, and that's the only thing they can think of that he was eating and she wasn't.

Eek! I hope he’s ok!

cornichonmam · June 2018

I don't know about you guys, but I've decided that I'm going to put pre-cut melon on my list of foods not to eat in pregnancy. This is the third outbreak since we've been pregnant (2 in America and 1 in Australia) and I'm thinking there may be an issue with how melons are processed. Unlike a lot of fruits melons are grown on the ground and hence are in direct contact with fertilizers which can include manure, then after cutting the high surface area and high water content gives bacteria a lot of opportunity to grow.

In the UK last year there was some scientific research into bacteria growth in banged pre-washed salad leaves and their research showed high levels of bacteria could grow in the bags before the use by date. Their recommendation was to eat any pre-baged salad as soon as possible from the date of purchase, preferably on the day of or day after purchase. I think this would be a good rule to follow for all pre-prepared fruits and vegetables.

What are your thoughts on the outbreak?

stothi · June 2018

@cornichonmam my biggest thought is that my husband can't ever make fun of me again for washing a watermelon before cutting it up. He said he'd never seen someone wash a melon before and that you don't have to because you don't eat the rind. I said I thought that was the dumbest thing I'd ever heard cause the knife goes through the rind and then into the part you eat and if you pile it on a plate or in a Tupperware with the rind still on, that even though you don't eat that part, it's touching what you do eat. I always thought it was basic logic that you should wash something that grows sitting in the dirt (manure, fertilizer, place where animals can come by and pee on it) before you eat it.

nlc8424 · June 2018

@stothi you're 100% correct. If you follow food safety guidelines, you should wash all melons before cutting them for that exact reason.

stothi · June 2018

So, not about melons, but about people not following proper food handling guidelines- today at the grocery store I bought (amongst other things) raw meat, chicken and beef, and containers of prepared hot foods. When I put my foods on the conveyor belt I very much separate raw meat away from the other foods especially like veggies or anything that will be eaten raw. I even built like a little wall of cans on one side of the raw meat and a wall of boxes goods on the other, and the freaking cashier still decided the thing to do was to bag my cold raw meats with my hot prepared food. Are you freaking kidding me? She had to work hard to get those items into a bag together. I very gently lost my shit on her and said "you don't put ready to eat items or things that won't be cooked in with raw meats. You always want to bag raw meat separately. Especially when you are dealing with a pregnant woman's food." As I'm taking she does a clueless/ok whatever little "oh ok," and then when I mention being pregnant she said, "oh! You're pregnant!?" Um. Yeah. My belly sticks out like 4 inches father than my boobs and I waddle like a penguin with a broken hip... I'm 6 months pregnant and look straight up like I'm 8 months! I'm huge! I'm wearing a tight shirt and you can see the freaking panels of my maternity pants. Yes. I am pregnant. But yeah, on the way to the car I start ranting at my husband that she and people like her are the reason there's a freaking listeria/salmonella outbreak every 3 damn seconds. Is it not common knowledge that you don't package raw meat with anything other than raw meat? That you don't store raw meat in the fridge above other items that it could possibly drip on? That you don't package hot freaking foods with items that must be kept at cold temperatures to maintain their safety? I mean, seriously please raise the temperature of my raw chicken to something nice and funky while it drips now warm raw juice all over my prepared dinner. That's not a health hazard at all...
And then she bagged the bread separately. Like not just from the other foods, but each loaf in it's own bag. Cause sure, toss the raw meat anywhere but god forbid you should put 2 loaves of bread in the same bag...

adirat · June 2018

@stothi I gagged reading that. She shouldn't be packing ANYONE's raw meat that way! Gross gross gross!

pourmeanothermocktail · June 2018

@stothi I hear you and agree. That being said most grocery cashiers are taught very strongly only three rules, and are usually young and dumb. 1-food can only be bagged with other food.2-double bag cans and alcohol. 3- Don't use too many bags.

Doesn't really explain the bread, unless maybe she was dumb and used to put bread with heavy things and squish it, so she had other customers tell her to separate bread.

Either way, especially low income homes don't have a way to teach basic food and or bagging safety. You don't learn it in school, and if your parents either work all the time or use all generally processed or freezer foods because those are quick plus frozen or canned produce you never deal with raw meat or anything.

Not that any of this excuses her, but just trying to explain how this crap happens, having been there. I was embarrassingly old when I learned that you can buy fresh meat or veggies.

None of that means you should just put up with it either though, or that you shouldn't be frustrated!!!!

stothi · June 2018

@pourmeamocktail one of my siblings, who grew up in the same home as me, didn't even how to handle raw meat cause they don't cook and have never purchased a package of raw meat. Only processed or frozen. Blew my mind.
I honestly thought everyone knew. But then I think about it and when my sibling got to the age to start learning about that stuff, the work situation with my parents had changed, mom was working late, so not cooking and I had actually taken over about 80% of the cooking and the parents were doing the grocery shopping on the way home from work so the kids didn't go. This sibling also didn't take any cooking/home ec type classes in Jr high/high school, and lived at home with the folks all through college and a bit beyond. I did take cooking classes in high school, took over the cooking at home as an early teen and married young and was in charge of my own household by 21. It's weird to think that even in the same household the kids could learn (or not learn as the case may be) different things.

I'm shocked though that grocery stores/superstores don't teach cashiers/baggers to bag raw meats separately. Cause I mean, they (the store) should definitely know safe food handling!

dairygirl93 · June 2018

I worked at Walmart as a cashier in high school and bagging was a HUGE part of the training. I’m talking 10 hours on the computer virtually bagging items, plus two hours bagging cart fills for your trainer. And the computer program was super picky. Maybe it’s just a Walmart Canada thing though? But even still, I’ve had to correct a lot of cashiers.

Most of it it was common sense for me because I had been bagging my parents groceries since I could reach the belt. Food safe courses were also mandatory in my school. Again, I know that’s not common because I come from a tiny school. 150 students from preschool to grade 12 in the year I graduated. But like @stothi said, it can differ even in the same household. My sister is only 2 years younger than me and it is shocking at how little she knows about pretty much anything.

starla · June 2018

I always bag my own groceries because I don't trust the teenage kids working the register to do it properly. They often put soft stuff on the bottom, like fruit, and it gets bruised. I have a whole system and it's like a game of lego! LOL But when they do help, they usually ask if you want your meat in a separate bag. I always use reusable bags though so i'll put it at the bottom, usually in its own bag. You have to remember to wash the bags if anything leaks.

pourmeanothermocktail · June 2018

@stothi yeah, my sister and I (8 years apart) grew up in totally different situations even though it was technically the same single parent household...we learned totally different things.

@dairygirl93 The training I got at Target was....lacking. Food safety courses SHOULD be mandatory at all middle and high schools, personal opinion, but I've never even heard of one being offered, and my school was pretty small. My freshman year was the first time the graduating class was over 100. Obviously larger than your school, but still.

Either way, store should have done better to teach for sure! Because obviously people don't all learn this stuff at home.

jumpy57 · June 2018

Usually the grocery stores by me have the rolls of plastic bags in the meat section. I always bag the package and insist that meat be bagged completely separate from everything else at checkout. Also I'm afraid of salad while pregnant

cornichonmam · June 2018

I'm a teacher of Food Preparation and Nutrition in the UK. Its manditory for all schools to teach it between 11 and 14. I think it's important to teach kids about food not just the hygine (you would be amazed how many students think you should wash chicken still) but about nutrition too. So many kids have awful diets we try our best to teach them about good nutrition and try to educate them about the choices they make.

Salmonella Outbreak in Pre- cut Melons

Re: Salmonella Outbreak in Pre- cut Melons

Choose Another Board

Search Boards