The UK’s Health Protection Agency (HPA) has identified fresh-cut watermelon as the “likely” source of the recent salmonella outbreak in the UK, Ireland and Germany, although the organisation has yet to determine the origin of the fruit.
The HPA is investigating an outbreak of a strain of Salmonella Newport infection that has affected 30 people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland since the beginning of December 2011.
Cases of illness caused by thesame strain have been confirmed in Scotland, the Republic of Ireland and Germany.
Although the origin of the outbreak has still to be determined, an HPA spokesperson said the recent cases matched the same strain of Salmonella Newport as contaminated fresh-cut watermelon, imported from Brazil, discovered during a UK food survey in November 2011.
She said: “It looks like watermelon is the likely source, but we are carrying out further investigations with the Food Standards Agency about where these watermelons came from.”
However, trade sources believe Brazil is the probable origin of the watermelons, should they be found to be the source of the outbreak, as the South American country is said to be the only major supplier of the fruit during December.
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