People in Colorado, New Mexico, and Oklahoma have died due to an outbreak of listeria in cantaloupe. Thirty-five others have been sickened by the disease in other states such as: California, Illinois, Indiana, Montana, Nebraska, Texas, and West Virginia. The cantaloupe crop with listeria found in it was traced back to Jensen Farm in Denver Colorado. Jensen Farm and the FDA have recalled the cantaloupes and suggest that anyone who believes they may have gotten produce from this farm to discard it immediately.
This is pretty scary to me because this is a type of bacteria that grows rapidly and may have already contaminated other foods in peoples' refrigerators. My family consumes a large amount of fresh fruits and veggies each month, so it concerns me that my child my get extremely sick. It doesn't normally have an ill effect on adults but does on those with weak immune systems. I wonder how many lawsuits will be pressed against the Jensen farm by the families of the deceased? If they can take samples from farms to detect things like this, why don't they do it before its shipped out all across the country? It would prevent things like this from happening in the future. They should do this to all food products that are shipped anywhere like beef, pork, lamb, fish, poultry, fruits, veggies, dairy, etc. It would make me and my family feel a lot safer knowing that the food we eat is 100% free of bacteria and disease.
It's funny, I usually don't buy cantaloupe, but did right before news of this outbreak..I feel like nothing we eat is safe anymore unless it's organic, and even then, who knows.
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