www.med-art.com
The AP (8/15) reports from Denver, "An
attorney for people who say they were sickened by cantaloupe contaminated with
listeria says US Attorney's officials are investigating the outbreak."
Bill Marler "represents the families of about 40 people who were sickened
or died following the outbreak linked to a Colorado farm. He said Tuesday that
investigators asked for his case files, and he turned them over several weeks
ago. A spokesman for the US Department of Justice's civil division, Charles
Miller, refused to confirm any investigation or say whether it was civil or
criminal."
Food Safety News (8/15, Flynn) adds that John
Walsh, the "US Attorney for Colorado is close to finishing a Federal
criminal investigation into the deadly 2011 Listeria outbreak associated with
cantaloupes from Jensen Farms, the nonprofit Denver-based I-News Network
reports." However, James Pena, who "heads the US District Attorney's
healthcare fraud task force, called the Listeria outbreak 'an important public
health issue,'" but neither he nor "anyone else" speaking for
Walsh would "confirm or deny the existence of the investigation."
FDA: Cantaloupes, melons from North Carolina recalled amid
Listeria concerns. CNN (8/15) reports that the FDA announced
Tuesday that Burch Farms has "recalled all cantaloupes and honeydew melons
it grew this year because of possible listeria contamination." The agency
said it "found Listeria monocytogenes or L. mono on a honeydew melon and
at the packing facility in Faison, North Carolina." Consumers can identify
the contaminated cantaloupes and melons, which were "sold to distributors
in 18 states along the East Coast and in the Midwest but may have been resold
in other states," by their stickers which either say "Burch Farms or
Cottle Strawberry." Thus far, the FDA said it has received no reports of
illness from the products but noted that Listeriosis can occur "several
weeks" after eating a contaminated product.
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