On Honduras cantaloupes

The Honduras melon recall seems to have entered the public consciousness at a fairly high level. Consider this blog coverage from the NYT and follow on reader comments. From the blog by Mike Nizza:

Adding his own twist to the Latin American strongman railing against American policies, President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras began talking to journalists on Tuesday. “Here I have the box of melons,” he said, according to CNN. “Permit me to make a demonstration.”

He “cut open the fruit, sliced off a chunk, put it in his mouth and chewed vigorously,” CNN continued, and then unleashed his fiery anti-American punchline:

“I eat this fruit without any fear,” he said with his mouth full. “It’s a delicious fruit. Nothing happens to me!”

To sharpen the F.D.R. echo in other words: the only fruit to fear is fear itself.

The Food and Drug Administration strongly disagrees. On Saturday, it issued an urgent recall of cantaloupes from Agropecuaria Montelibano, a grower in Honduras that sends more than 2 million boxes to the U.S. each year:

TK: Here are some wide-ranging reader comments to Nizza's post:

This is no joke.

I bought one of these cantaloupes last week and ate it on Saturday. Within hours I was sick - nauseated , headache, intestinal pain, vomiting - general malaise - I slept for hours in the middle of the day, when I wasn’t moaning out loud. I had no idea what could have caused my symptoms until I heard about the cantaloupe recall.

— Posted by Ellen

I may not be part of the official “statistics” as I haven’t reported it to anyone. But I got seriously ill after eating Honduran cantaloupes about ten days ago. -before the first article was published.
Wonder how many other cases were unreported or attributed to something else.

— Posted by Wilder

Poor little Honduras. It is one of the most economically depressed countries in this hemisphere. I was there in the Peace Corps in the early 70s. I have nothing but the warmest memories. You couldn’t find a nicer country or people. Over the years, they have been a staunch and loyal friend of this country. I would hope such a rich country as ours could provide some form of economic assistance.

— Posted by Allen from Boston

Umm,

I have a cantaloupe on my table, should I throw it away now? Its really strange that this post is the first that I’ve heard about this, thanks for the heads up.

— Posted by Jose

Salmonella and other harmful bacteria can be found on any type of melon - from anywhere in the world. The bacteria or other contaminant is then transfered to the flesh upon slicing. It should be a common practice to wash the outside of all melons well before slicing.

— Posted by Scott

this is sad, what could cause this fruit and maybe other produce to be contaminated like this, is it in growing, packing, handling, cleaning solvents, please clarify.
looks like we have totally lost control of things when these calamities happen to fruits.
I have heard of these from say, ground beef, meats, etc.
Thank you
Ramon

— Posted by R.M. delosReyes

I think it must be a big coincidence or something that in Alamosa, Colorado the city had to close down the water system because of salmonella poisoning. Many people were poisoned and they had to clean the water system. Did you also know that Alomosa is right in the middle of the area that produces Rocky Ford Cantaloupes that are sold nationwide? Hopefully they didn’t somehow get mixed up with the ones from Honduras.

— Posted by Marv