Cantaloupes may seem like the way toward better health, but they may make you sick if they come from our southern neighbor.
These melons from Mexico have been grown and handled in unsanitary conditions, causing the Food and Drug Administration to block all shipments of Mexican cantaloupes into the United States.
The restrictions will be in place until the growers or shippers from the Mexican region supply the FDA with some type of documentation that they will adhere to good agricultural practices, said Jim Nowlin, assistant director of the Arizona Department of Agriculture.
"Good agricultural practices include testing the water they use to wash the cantaloupes and sanitary conditions at the packing facility," Nowlin said.
The restriction followed the FDA investigation of two deaths and 18 hospitalizations that were reported from salmonellosis in California, Nowlin said.
The illnesses were traced from cantaloupes that had crossed Mexico, he added.
"People in Arizona aren't at a big risk," Nowlin said. "We produce a lot of cantaloupes here in Arizona, around 8- to 10-million cartons a year, and less than 10 percent of the cantaloupes that cross into the United States from Nogales end up in Arizona."
He said while this blockade reduces the likelihood of being contaminated by the fruit, it doesn't eliminate it, and there is always a possibility of bacteria.
Reach the reporter at susan.padilla@asu.edu.
