The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) believes facility design, equipment design and post-harvest practices are likely to have been involved in the contamination of the Jensen Farms cantaloupe melons that are implicated in the recent US listeriosis outbreak.
In its environmental assessment the FDA found that the cantaloupes' growing fields were an unlikely means of contamination because environmental samples of them had tested negative for listeria.
The FDA identified Jensen Farms' packing and coldstorage facility as the more likely source of infection, suggesting that wet environments, a link to a cattle operation, difficulties in cleaning new packing equipment and a lack of pre-cooling before coldstorage could all have been contributing factors.
The document concludes with suggestions for related good agricultural and management practices that could help prevent a similar outbreak in the future.
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