Atlanta Injury Lawyer Blog

It's enough to make you stop wanting to eat cantaloupes. Back in October 2011, I wrote a series of legal blog entries about the listeriosis outbreak coming from cantaloupes coming from Jensen Farms in Colorado. More than 123 people became sick from a bacteria called Listeria monocytogenes, and 25 of them died.

Just when you thought the sweet, soft orange fruit was safe again, a North Carolina company is now recalling its cantaloupes, again due to Listeria monocytogenes bacteria. A Faison, North Carolina company called Burch Equipment LLC, also known as Burch Farms, is recalling not just cantaloupes, but also honeydew melons.
On August 10, 2012, a Food & Drug Administration press released announced that the cantaloupe recall is being expanded to cover the entire growing season's crop of cantaloupes and honeydew melons because they could be contaminated with listeria.

The recall began in New York, but the fruit being recalled apparently was sold to distributors throughout the United States. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has said the fruit was sold in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, Vermont and West Virginia. Unfortunately, no one believes the recall will stop there. The distributors in these states, "may have further distributed them to other states," according to the FDA.

So far, no one has been confirmed to be ill because of eating the cantaloupe or honeydew melons from Burch farms. However, listeria incubates for a period anywhere from three days to more than two months, so some serious illnesses may still occur.

Listeria can cause mild symptoms, ranging from fever to diarrhea and intestinal problems, but it also can cause life-threatening symptoms, particular in the elderly, pregnant women, infants, and people weakened immune systems, from AIDS, radiation treatments for cancer, or for any other reason.

The listeria bacteria can cause a serious disease called listeriosis. It particularly affects children, the elderly, and people with weakened immune systems. Pregnant women exposed to the bacteria may become ill and may suffer stillbirths.

The incubation period for Listeria monocytogenes varies widely, and can range from 3 days to 70, according to the FDA. Because the incubation period can be so long, consumers who have eaten cantaloupe or honeydew melons will have to be alert for the symptoms for quite some time to come.

The Burch cantaloupes that are included in the recall have a red label that says "Burch Farms" and "PLU # 4319". Some may have a "Cottle Strawberry, Inc." sticker that references "PLU #4319." The FDA explains that the cantaloupes were shipped in boxes of nine, and also were shipped in bulk in bins.

Unfortunately, the Burch honeydew melons that are being recalled do not have any identifying stickers and were packed in cartons labeled simply as melons.

According to the press release, the recall now encompasses fruit distributed in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, Vermont and West Virginia. The FDA warns that "the melons may have further been distributed to retail stores, restaurants and food service facilities in other states."

The symptoms of listeriosis can includ a high fever, severe headache, muscle aches or stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea. A client I represented in a listeria lawsuit became so ill he wound up in a coma for several weeks.

The Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") has released a letter it had sent to Jensen Farms citing it for unsanitary conditions which contributed to the listeriosis outbreak caused by listeria bacteria from Jensen Farms cantaloupes.

In early September, the Centers for Disease Control ("CDC") traced a deadly outbreak of listeriosis back to cantaloupes that were grown at Jensen Farms in Granada, Colorado, and that were contaminated with listeria bacteria. According to CDC, 23 people have died from eating the Jensen Farms cantaloupes, making this listeriosis outbreak the second deadliest listeria outbreak in the history of the United States.

The outbreak has been remarkable because it involved four "widely differing strains and two serotypes." CDC broke the illnesses down into for "clusters" that were based on the four different strains it found in blood testing on the patients who had contracted listeriosis.

In the letter released yesterday, the FDA said that during its inspection on September 10, 2011, it sampled ten cantaloupes from four pallets in the cold storage room at Jensen Farm's packing facility. Five of the ten cantaloupes tested positive for Listeria monocytogenes, or L. monocytogenes, which is a dangerous bacteria that can cause listeriosis. Four of the cantaloupes were contaminated with Cluster #2, and another contaminated with Cluster #4.

The FDA also ran 39 swabs over surfaces in the facility, and tests showed 13 of the swwabs were contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. Eleven of the swabs matched Cluster # 2, one matched Cluster #3, and one matched cluster #4.

The FDA told Jensen Farms, "these cantaloupes from your facility are adulterated within the meaning of Section 402(a)(1) of the Act [21 U.S.C. § 342(a)(1)] in that they bear or contain a poisonous or deleterious substance that may render them injurious to health."

The FDA gave Jensen Farms fifteen working days to notify the FDA in writing of the steps Jensen Farms has taken to correct the violations and how it would prevent them from happening again.

The FDA warned Jensen Farms that it would take "corrective action" if Jensen Farms did not "promptly correct these violations." The FDA said it could seize Jensen Farm's products or enjoin Jensen Farms from operating.

The FDA referred Jensen Farms to its publication, Draft Guidance for Industry, Guide to Minimize Microbial Food Safety Hazards of Melons. In that guidance, the FDA recommends that growers and packers use "packing equipment designed to facilitate cleaning and sanitation of melon contact surfaces and constructed of materials that may be easily cleaned and sanitized'; validate and verify "that melon wetting and brushing operations are not a potential source of melon contamination or cross-contamination"; and cool and store melons in a cold storage location "as soon as possible after harvest because delays in cooling when melons with netted rinds (such as cantaloupe) are wet from washing operations may allow for multiplication of human pathogens on the rind surface."

This letter suggests some appallingly poor sanitation occurred at Jensen Farms. I am a personal injury lawyer in Atlanta, Georgia, and I have been particularly interested in listeria lawsuits since 1998, when a client approached me because he had become very ill after eating Sara Lee hot dogs contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, also known as the listeria bacteria. In that case, the United States Department of Agriculture ("USDA") cited Sara Lee's Bil Mar facility for horrifying health and sanitation violations which led up to the Sara Lee hot dog recall, just as the FDA has done here with Jensen Farms.

As a listeria lawyer, I have been very concerned to read about the listeriosis outbreak that has been caused by cantaloupe from Jensen Farms. The Centers for Disease Control ("CDC") has announced what the AP has called "the deadliest food outbreak in a decade."

In early September, CDC noticed a sudden uptick in the number of cases of listeriosis in Colorado. Colorado generally averages two cases of listeriosis in the month of August, but in just the five days between August 28 and September 2, Colorado reported seven cases to the CDC. Each of the seven patients had CDC isolated L. monocytogenes, which comes from listeria, in his or her blood.

CDC tracked the outbreak back to cantaloupe marketed as "Rocky Ford," which came from Jensen Farms in Colorado. CDC recommended that people not eat any cantaloupe from Jensen Farms. Jensen Farms finally issued a cantaloupe recall for all Jensen Farms cantaloupes on September 14, 2011.

By October 17, 2011, CDC announced that the outbreak had infected 123 people. Tragically, 25 people have died, and one pregnant woman suffered a miscarriage.

So what can you do? First, if you have Jensen Farms cantaloupe, do not eat it. Unfortunately, CDC tells us that not all of the cantaloupes from Jensen Farms were labeled as being from Jensen Farms. Given that fact, CDC recommends that you throw out any cantaloupe that you have if you cannot identify where it came from.

Listeriosis is a disease that people can get when they ingest a bacteria called Listeria monocytogenes, or listeria for short. While many people who eat food contaminated with listeria will show few symptoms, the bacteria can be very dangerous and obviously can be deadly. Listeriosis is particularly dangerous for the elderly, and people who have compromised immune symptoms, perhaps because of illness, AIDS, or chemotherapy treatments for cancer. Pregnant women are 20 times more likely to get listeriosis than other healthy adults are. The disease is especially dangerous in pregnant women because it can affect the fetus, and a baby can be born with it. .

In keeping with these general findings, CDC has told us that most of the people who became ill after they ate the Jensen Farms cantaloupes were over 60 years old. Three of the people who became ill were pregnant women, and one of them suffered a miscarriage. A fourth pregnant woman who had been exposed to the listeria bacteria gave birth to a newborn baby who had listeriosis. A staggering 98% of the people who contracted listeriosis from the cantaloupes had to be hospitalized.

When food-processing companies or restaurants ignore sanitation procedures, their customers may wind up eating food contaminated with listeria. People who become ill from eating food that was negligently prepared may have a listeria lawsuit legal case for the damages they incur.

My first experience as a listeria attorney was ten years ago, when I was contacted by a man who nearly been killed by listeria from a Sara Lee hot dog. Supposedly hot dogs are pre-cooked, so he had merely heated his hot dog in a microwave oven - which was not enough to kill the bacteria. This wonderful man lay in a coma on the steps in his condo for almost a day. Had it not been for a neighbor who got concerned and checked on him, he might have died. He woke up weeks later, to learn he had nearly died from listeriosis.