WASHINGTON—The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today released a report that detailed a combination of flaws at the Jensen Farms’ cantaloupe packing facility that most likely contributed to the nation’s deadliest Listeria monocytogenes outbreak since 1985.
According to the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control, the death toll from Listeria-tainted cantaloupes is 25 and 123 people have sickened in at least 26 states. In addition, one woman pregnant at the time of illness had a miscarriage.
In early September, FDA, CDC and state health departments began to investigate a multi-state outbreak of Listeriosis. Early in the investigation, cantaloupes from Jensen Farms in the southwest region of Colorado were implicated in the outbreak.
A subsequent environmental assessment was conducted Sept. 22-23 to gather more information to assist FDA in identifying the factors that potentially contributed to the introduction, growth or spread of the Listeria monocytogenes strains that contaminated the cantaloupe. The probe, conducted by a team of federal and state officials, found multiple problems at the Colorado packing facility, such as design flaws that led to water pooling near packing equipment and the use of equipment that was difficult to clean.
Specifically, FDA identified the following factors as those that most likely contributed to the introduction, spread, and growth of Listeria monocytogenes in the cantaloupes:
- There could have been low level sporadic Listeria monocytogenes in the field where the cantaloupe were grown, which could have been introduced into the packing facility.
- A truck used to haul culled cantaloupe to a cattle operation was parked adjacent to the packing facility and could have introduced contamination into the facility.
- The packing facility’s design allowed water to pool on the floor near equipment and employee walkways.
- The packing facility floor was constructed in a manner that made it difficult to clean.
- The packing equipment was not easily cleaned and sanitized; washing and drying equipment used for cantaloupe packing was previously used for post-harvest handling of another raw agricultural commodity.
- There was no pre-cooling step to remove field heat from the cantaloupes before cold storage. As the cantaloupes cooled there may have been condensation that promoted the growth of Listeria monocytogenes.
In a warning letter sent to Holly, Colo.-based Jensen Farms on Oct. 18, FDA noted that during a Sept. 10 inspection of the packing facility, 13 of 39 samples tested positive for Listeria, matching three of the four outbreak strains. “These positive swabs were taken from different locations throughout the washing and packing areas in your facility, all of which were either food contact surfaces or areas adjacent to food contact surfaces," the letter stated.
