The Food and Drug Administration is encouraging consumer vigilance to limit the impact of a salmonella outbreak tied to cantaloupe consumption across more than 30 states and Canada.
In the U.S. the outbreak has resulted in 99 illnesses, 45 hospitalizations and two deaths, FDA said Monday; additional detections have been reported in Canada that are genetically related to the U.S. outbreak.
FDA is advising consumers who bought whole or cut cantaloupe from several retailers and with certain label information to discard the product, as a string of illnesses tied to the contaminated melons stretches into its third week.
The agency says whole fresh cantaloupes with labels bearing the words “Malichita” or “Rudy,” “4050”, and “Product of Mexico/produit du Mexique” should be thrown away, as should boxed melons from Crown Jewels Produce with “Malachita/Z Farms” labels, Sofia Produce — doing business as Trufresh — packages with “Malichita” or “Rudy” verbiage, or corrugated cartons with certain lot codes from Pacific Trellis.
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The recall also extends to cut cantaloupe and other cantaloupe products with best-by dates ranging from Oct. 27-31 purchased from ALDI stores. Consumers are also to discard product purchased from Oklahoma Vinyard stores between Oct. 30 and Nov. 10 and assorted Freshness Guaranteed or RaceTrac assortments sold in 10 states.
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