The U.S. Food and Drug Administration this week released an
environmental assessment inspection report on how exactly the
cantaloupes linked to a deadly 2012 Salmonella may have been
contaminated. The report comes six months after Chamberlain
Farms in Owensville, Indiana was pinpointed as the source of the
outbreak, which sickened 261, including three deaths, in 24
states. According to the report, the initial contamination of
the cantaloupes “likely occurred in the production fields and
was most likely spread by operations and practices in the
packinghouse. It is also likely that the contamination
proliferated during storage and transport to market.” During an
inspection of the Chamberlain Farms packinghouse from August 14
t0 31 of last year, FDA found a number of conditions that could
have contributed to the spread of contamination. According to
the report, the food contact and non-food contact surfaces in
the packhouse were constructed with materials that couldn’t be
easily cleaned or sanitized, including c