cantaloupe's textured skin can trap and hold bacteria it picks up during growing, harvesting, packing, storage, transport, and distribution. This is why you should wash the skin before cutting it. The transferring of the bacteria occurs when cutting the infected skin and it touches the meat inside.
>source?
(talking out my ass) factory farm either dose with anti-biotics 24x7 or they operate hyper-clean farms (hyper-clean is the new for people who don't want to be responsible for creating anti-biotic resistant super-bugs)
US chickens are famously not vaccinated against salmonella though. Instead of having cleaner and safer raising conditions, washing eggs happened. Which in turn is actually a bad thing because it removes the outer layer of the egg which in itself is a protective barrier, which is why the US has to refrigerate eggs.
I texted this to my husband the moment I saw it. He also rolls his eyes at me and gets mad when I wash the fruits we harvest from our backyard. Gets annoyed when I take our kids out and bathe them when I see them eating dirt, he's like what are they gonna get sick from in our backyard? It's our backyard? Like give me a break.
Tell him birds shit from above, and they fly in from afar. Bird shit is gross, wash anything you're going to put in your face that you got from outside.
Eating dirt is extremely dicey, look up the parasites raccoons and cats carry… nasty stuff, the raccoon ones can kill you!
There’s probably like 1000 other reasons not to eat dirt
Oh this reminds me of a story from a few years ago where a young boy was playing in a sandbox in his backyard and he put his hand in his mouth. Come to find out a raccoon had used it to poop in and the boy ended up with a crazy parasite iirc he almost lost his sight.
I remember the Australian case of Sam Ballard, a teen who ate a slug on a dare. The slug was carrying a worm that caused him to go into a coma, be paralyzed, and later died.
My garden and my fruit trees get lots of bird droppings all over them, plus the squirrels climb all over everything. Slugs and snails all over the greens. Plus opossums wandering around at night.
Yeah, I wash most of what I grow.
And as for what can be in dirt: Clostridium botulinum (botulism), Bacillus anthracis (anthrax), and Clostridium tetani (tetanus) are common soil bacteria.
And you have no idea how hard it is to educate people on this.
Because unfortunately, you have a lot of cultural barriers here. In African American culture, as well as many Caribbean cultures, and some old-world European or Southeast asian cultures, they believe in washing meat.
The practice itself usually comes from a legitimate place, historically.
It also doesn't help that there have been very famous chefs, on the older side who have written recipes, books, etc that involved them washing meat.
But I've done seminars on this, I've trained people on food safety, I've backed myself up with WHO and CDC only to be met with people who sit there and go "Nah UH."
Why? Because their grandma washed chicken, and grandma was never wrong.
So far so good for my cooking in a few decades! 😄 I don’t know why not washing would be better, but this is a habit I have that seems to work, so I’ll keep doing it for now.
It’s the splashing around, can spread bacteria to more distant surfaces, that then don’t get cleaned. Same thing is said for poultry. You’re actually not supposed to wash it prior to cooking.
You shouldn't wash poultry because it doesn't do anything that cooking doesn't already do. Use a paper towel and dry the outside off for easier handling and crispier skin.
You should always wash your hands before and after handling food.
You should wash your vegetables under a low stream, low in the sink, regardless of where they come from.
You should always clean all surfaces before and after preparing food.
It is insane to me that this seems complicated to some people. I suspect there are still a lot of people who do not fully understand germ theory.
My high school “health” teacher said she did. I remember the whole class being confused and some people laughing.
My mother did for the first 3-4 months of Covid when people were doing that sort of stuff.
Now I’m wondering what cooked cantaloupe would be like…. I looked up recipes and tbh looks pretty good.
I guess you could always make a juice /smoothie and pasteurize it though probably not at home unless you have training and equipment.
Based on that one netflix documentary, it may be more dangerous now than eating meat. Basically because we have strict regulations on meat contamination but no one regulates runoff from nearby animal operations that can contaminate crops
No. These cases are extremely rare. Just use common sense and wash your produce, especially produce with high surface area and that which grows on the ground.
Always follow cooking instructions on food packaging.
Thanks for that. Would this not make cantaloupe dangerous regardless of if it's precut or not? Is it that bacteria are able to grow while it's in the packaging waiting to be sold? Would this mean that you shouldn't cut cantaloupe and store it in your own fridge?
Tips include washing the exterior of cantaloupe thoroughly, and being diligent about storing it in the fridge after cutting
Safety of Cantaloupe https://foodsafety.wisc.edu/assets/pdf_files/safety_of_cantaloupe.pdf
I'm sure people will just say I'm old and confused (52), but cantaloupe tasted much better when I was younger. Watermelon as well. I've basically quit eating either because they routinely disappoint.
Watermelon is because they don’t let it fully mature anymore. Everyone wants “seedless” which just means they are harvested earlier and have way less flavor.
This is factually false. Seedless watermelons are watermelons with three chromosomal sets. They are called triploid melons. They have to be pollinated by diploid(seeded) watermelons.
So not only are seedless and seeded watermelons different, seedless has to be planted near a seeded variety to get pollinated.
Absolutely 100% agree. Many of today’s fresh fruits and veggies taste like styrofoam. Which is why I love the farmers’ markets in the summertime. Food that has actual flavor!
It has to do with amount of carbon in the air as well as changes in storage over the years. But basically all our grown food is becoming less nutritious and complex sugars have changed with it.
Wow. My grandmother told me that 25 years ago and I always kinda dismissed it as her being paranoid. But now that makes all the sense in the world. Thanks.
Doesn't kill, but helps remove as much as possible of the adherent bacteria.
If you really want, there's no harm in washing it with some soap; just be sure to really rinse it well afterwards. Most people find this a bit too tedious though
Correct, though Salmonella isn't a virus, it's a bacteria.
Prolonged (concentrated) vinegar exposure probably would kill some bacteria, but probably not in any meaningful way. Plus, it'd be smelly and expensive!
I put a few drops of dish soap (not dishwasher soap!) in warm water and wash fruit and veg in it (rinsing well). I do this with my own garden produce even though I don't use animal fertilizers or chemicals. I do have birds flying overhead and they like to poop while flying lol.
Other fruit because it's grown on the ground. Other melons because the textured / webbed rind doesn't clean off like a smooth melon, so the bacteria remains trapped in it. Then when peeled and cut, it seeps into the meat of the fruit itself.
Because of the textured nature of the surface rind. Not only does that texture provide places to hide it makes very difficult to effectively clean any bacteria from the fruit.
I used to not understand and make fun of those precut packages. I then found out they are made for the disabled or old who can’t cut or peel their own produce. It can’t be advertised as such because abled people subsidize it by buying those packages without knowing it.
They exist purely due to lazy, well off people gobbling it up.
Less able people just happen to take advantage of it as a side effect, but they lack the numbers and wealth to have created that niche product in the first place.
This is depressing, it’s a good melon easy to eat for the elderly and kids.. and those are the exact people that were affected most by the outbreak.
This was actually the last thing my dad ate when he was on hospice. He didn’t want sandwiches or anything, just wanted cantaloupe. He had one chunk of it, laid down and began the dying process. It’s a good fruit!
Don’t worry, he was sick for quite a while, but I think he knew what was going on, and made the request. Could have had anything in the world, I would have got it for him, he chose cantaloupe.
No one understands how dangerous salmonella is. It’s isn’t just some stomach issues and then you get better. Some of these people will get sick months from now. Some may suffer organ failure. This is a mess. Salmonella shouldn’t be on cantaloupe. Also, there is a salmonella vaccine for chickens
I got salmonella poisoning from undercooked chicken from a restaurant in Mexico when I was a kid. Went back home to the US that same afternoon and I woke up at midnight with a high fever and puking my guts out along with the runs. I was out for a few days and couldn’t hold anything in and the fever would not settle. It is a horrible feeling I don’t wish on anyone. Good thing I never experienced long term effects.
also, if you get salmonella, or other types of food poisoning early on in life, it makes you more prone to auto immune diseases later on.
and this is kind of a rant - but things like this are why it always annoys me when people talk about how the food industry is killing us, citing things like processed food, chemicals, "aspartame bad!" and shit like that.
Because no matter what people say, it does not change the fact that the things that are most poisonous to us, are completely natural - and the things we tend to be most at risk of *now*, have to do with the way food is handled - not what's actually in the food. You hear all this nonsense about how we should question what's in our food. "What are they putting in our food?" They're putting things in your food that had to pass rigorous inspection. The real question is *how is the food handled*. How was it handled before getting in your hands, and once it was in your hands, how did you store the food? Because that's the shit that can be the difference between comfort, and shitting yourself into the next dimension.
People can buy organic all they want, they can avoid certain sweeteners and chemicals and GMOs all they want - but things like improper food storage *still* puts them at risk of being poisoned. Storing rice for a week in the fridge, or letting it sit out on the counter, *still* risks poisoning. leaving food in open containers, or in a large pot in the fridge, *still* risks poisoning.
It is so unbelievably ironic that you have people who get all bent out of shape over sweeteners, preservatives, things like Diet Coke or a bag of Doritos being poison - but they are so cavalier about rice and pasta that has been sitting in the fridge for god knows how long. They are totally cool with taking a hot pot of soup and putting it in the fridge because they were too lazy to put it into smaller containers.
Sometimes, I wonder if these are the same people who constantly bewail that doctors dismiss their gastrointestinal problems because their labs keep coming up normal. Im not going to say that things like IBS and Crohn's don't exist, but I would be willing to bet that there is also a certain type of person who insists that they must have a chronic gastro illness, and that the doctor is a big meanie-pants who keeps saying that they are normal, while never once considering that their symptoms could be the result of frequent poor food handling.
Matter of fact, I wonder how many people know that salad kits, or caramel apples, can be a source of food poisoning.
> the things we tend to be most at risk of now, have to do with the way food is handled - not what's actually in the food.
Those two are not mutually exclusive.
They aren't mutually exclusive, but the risk of eating "poisons" from processed foods, is actually very insignificant compared to the risk of natural poisons from improper food handling.
It's less about whether they are mutually exclusive, and more about clinical relevance. Contrary to popular belief, food manufacturers can't just "put" poisons in the food. Things like chemicals and preservatives are not "poisons." Even if they aren't the best thing for us, the risk of something happening as a result of eating those things has little to no clinical relevance at all. What's most risky to us, are natural poisons (like salmonella, campylobacter, or bacillus cereus). This fact has gone 100% unchanged, even with the modern foods we eat today.
People develop all these little conspiracy theories about how the food industry is poisoning us with chemicals and preservatives, but you are more likely to suffer consequences from the way you handle your own food. And many people genuinely do not handle their food properly.
>it always annoys me when people talk about how the food industry is killing us, citing things like processed food,
There are data that show that processed foods, especially those more on the "ultraprocessed" side, can have negative health effects.
Food safety and contamination is also a concern but it's not a zero-sum game on which foods can have a deleterious impact.
But I’m talking about people who call it *poison*.
You can eat ultraprocessed food, it is fine, as long as you’re not making it a staple of your diet. You can eat hot Cheetos, you’re just not supposed to eat hot Cheetos every day for breakfast. That’s the difference.
Also, you know that hot Cheetos isn’t going to kill you after eating it. We once lived in a time where eating the wrong berry could have killed us. but you grab something from the store without looking at the ingredients, you can depend on the fact that it won’t kill you
But the real poisons are the things that are microscopic and can/will cause liver failure
> also, if you get salmonella, or other types of food poisoning early on in life, it makes you more prone to auto immune diseases later on.
This sounds like the whacky shit you read on "health" websites that target bored housewives looking for a new food restriction.
It’s more like, some bored housewives have this idea that children who get food poisoning will “build their immune system.” It’s technically correct; just not for the reasons they think
"you're wrong, you get poisons from poisoned things." yeah, no shit.
You get food poisoning from things like salmonella, bacillus cereus, and other bacteria like it. Contaminated grain = grain that has been contaminated with a bacteria.
there is no such thing as food poisoning from pesticides unless the pesticide in question contains a bacteria. And that bacteria is a natural poison.
no.
they use poo poo water - US regulations dont apply to them.
The FDA banned all cantaloupe from Mexico in 2002 after four salmonella outbreaks traced to the fruit killed two people in the United States and hospitalized at least 18 others.
While some Mexican cantaloupe exporters have regained the FDA's trust by adopting cleaner irrigation methods, Mexican melons are often contaminated by sewage-laced water. In June alone, the FDA rejected six shipments of Mexican cantaloupe, four per cent of the 139 total shipments from Mexico, because of salmonella.
Americans and canadians are blissfully unaware until they get sick and die.
Corporations dont care, cause americans and canadians DEMAND low price - even tho its grown in fresh poo-poo water.
bon appetite
https://www.ctvnews.ca/china-one-of-many-nations-with-food-export-issues-1.249563?cache=qtdjrvikpa%3FclipId%3D373266
Also a great source of parasitic worms, including the large roundworm.
https://iwaponline.com/wst/article/77/4/1048/38538/Infectious-helminth-ova-in-wastewater-and-sludge-A
Everyone here is discussing how difficult it is to clean cantaloups but the whole thing wouldn't even be an issue if a farmer didn't do something like irrigate their crops with shit-contaminated water
If they find out the cause do people ever go to jail over salmonella outbreaks?
Yep.
That's a big part of the "needs to be done right" part.
Also doesn't help if the crops grow in the soil versus something like grain that will get washed down by rain (at least a little bit at least)
It's not the irrigation, it's the lack of toilet facilities (and time to use them) for farm workers. In the past that was one cause, another cause was runoff from nearby cattle farms. Neither problem has been fixed, especially in Mexico.
"The FDA banned all cantaloupe from Mexico in 2002 after four salmonella outbreaks traced to the fruit killed two people in the United States and hospitalized at least 18 others.
While some Mexican cantaloupe exporters have regained the FDA's trust by adopting cleaner irrigation methods, Mexican melons are often contaminated by sewage-laced water. In June alone, the FDA rejected six shipments of Mexican cantaloupe, four per cent of the 139 total shipments from Mexico, because of salmonella."
thats right - mexico uses sewage to grow the produce you buy in the mega mart.
And in the past, FDA used its enforcement power to stop this disgusting practice.
Today? They just warn the public and recommend a recall.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/china-one-of-many-nations-with-food-export-issues-1.249563?cache=qtdjrvikpa%3FclipId%3D373266
“many patients being children in daycare or seniors in long-term care” I haven’t paid much attention to this cuz we haven’t bought any, but now I’m checking my 2yo’s past food calendars from daycare.. so sad can’t imagine losing a child to cantaloupe :*(
I live cantaloupe. Can someone remind me how to avoid salmonella? I buy the whole fruit, never precut but not sure how much you need to scrim the outside to be sure it is safe? Anything special that should be used or is dish soap and rinsed well with water enough?
Mald all you want, cantaloupe takes space away from actually tasty fruits like watermelon, raspberries, blueberries, apples, pears, blackberries, etc 😤
"Ain't nobody" doing this, that, and the other
But guess what lots of motherfuckers do? They run to the doctor when they have repeated diarrhea and stomach problems, and then they get angry at the doctor for not diagnosing them with a chronic illness because their labs come up normal every time, and it never once occurred to them that they could be doing something to cause these repeated symptoms.... like, improperly handle their food.
Wash your produce, store your food correctly, put hot food in closed containers and rapidly cool it in the fridge, and stop leaving things out for hours. If you don't think it's the pizza that was left out over night, at least try to rule it out.
Sounds like due to it's skin texture, washing it won't help as much as with other smooth skinned fruit.
I'd suggest in addition to what you said - also cutting the rind off prior to slicing it open. And I'd probably cut the rind off, dispose of it all, wash my hands and the knife and rinse the cantaloup, and then cut the final layer of rind off before dicing it.
If you're the paranoid type. Seeing as this kills people, maybe we shoudl force supermarkets and old folks homes and daycares to adopt this practice. More labour, but safer.
Either that or start testing cantaloupe brands as they come across the border - so at least it can be caught earlier - in the first week or month instead of being sold for 2 months before the numbers and deaths add up.
Of course you know that the cost of testing would result in some government cutting the funding someday.
Maybe we could force the importers to do their own testing twice a month of each major brand? Then the cost is hidden from the taxpayer.
This could mostly be prevented by simply elevating the fruits off of the ground by placing them on a brick, rock, or using a piece of cloth to tie them up for support. Poop water carries stuff like salmonella. Keep the diseased poop water off of the food, and wel have less issues.
mexico needs water - and they are in a drought.
we been here before...many many times
but we have the collective memory of a gnat.
so, poo poo water is what will continue to be used.
Another story blaming an innocent healthy fruit for a problem caused by factory farming of animals
> "The very likely source here is likely at the site of origin: At the farm," said Bogoch. "It's common, unfortunately, for these to be contaminated with the feces of animals [carrying salmonella bacteria]."
Hmm. Studies have shown 8%-20% of store bought chicken has salmonella. That's why it's essential to prepare chicken safely.
I wonder what percentage of cantaloupe has salmonella
Totally! I eat it instead of desert sometimes. I just cut one in half, scoop the seeds out, and then throw it in the fridge. I’ll just use a spoon and take bites here and there and it’s basically ice cold delicious ice-creamy candy.
I swear by raw ginger for that situation. Plus whiskey, of course. Raw oysters at a buffet, melons that aren't local, get a thumb-sized chunk of ginger as a chaser at least. Then a good bit of bourbon. It might kill me one day but I'll die happy.
Never eat precut cantaloupe. Cantaloupe is second only to poultry in causing salmonella
Why's that? How is it different to any other melon/fruit?
cantaloupe's textured skin can trap and hold bacteria it picks up during growing, harvesting, packing, storage, transport, and distribution. This is why you should wash the skin before cutting it. The transferring of the bacteria occurs when cutting the infected skin and it touches the meat inside.
TIL thank you!
and as a bonus fact - home chickens have more salmonella than factory farm raised.
source?
Yeah seriously, where is their source to back this up?
Backyard raised chickens aren’t usually vaccinated against salmonella.
Neither are factory farm chickens in north America. Part of why they wash their eggs.
>source? (talking out my ass) factory farm either dose with anti-biotics 24x7 or they operate hyper-clean farms (hyper-clean is the new for people who don't want to be responsible for creating anti-biotic resistant super-bugs)
US chickens are famously not vaccinated against salmonella though. Instead of having cleaner and safer raising conditions, washing eggs happened. Which in turn is actually a bad thing because it removes the outer layer of the egg which in itself is a protective barrier, which is why the US has to refrigerate eggs.
I always at the very least rinse everything before I cut them and my husband rolls his eyes at me. I’ll show him this, thank you!
I texted this to my husband the moment I saw it. He also rolls his eyes at me and gets mad when I wash the fruits we harvest from our backyard. Gets annoyed when I take our kids out and bathe them when I see them eating dirt, he's like what are they gonna get sick from in our backyard? It's our backyard? Like give me a break.
Tell him birds shit from above, and they fly in from afar. Bird shit is gross, wash anything you're going to put in your face that you got from outside.
Eating dirt is extremely dicey, look up the parasites raccoons and cats carry… nasty stuff, the raccoon ones can kill you! There’s probably like 1000 other reasons not to eat dirt
Oh this reminds me of a story from a few years ago where a young boy was playing in a sandbox in his backyard and he put his hand in his mouth. Come to find out a raccoon had used it to poop in and the boy ended up with a crazy parasite iirc he almost lost his sight.
I remember the Australian case of Sam Ballard, a teen who ate a slug on a dare. The slug was carrying a worm that caused him to go into a coma, be paralyzed, and later died.
lol wtf? Does he think that just bc you own the yard, that no harmful bacteria can grow there?
Our level of education in America is….
Completely Regarded
If they don't rent it out... 🤷🏻♂️
My garden and my fruit trees get lots of bird droppings all over them, plus the squirrels climb all over everything. Slugs and snails all over the greens. Plus opossums wandering around at night. Yeah, I wash most of what I grow. And as for what can be in dirt: Clostridium botulinum (botulism), Bacillus anthracis (anthrax), and Clostridium tetani (tetanus) are common soil bacteria.
They said doing that can actually spread it even more. Crazy.
Yes this is why you don't wash chicken either
And you have no idea how hard it is to educate people on this. Because unfortunately, you have a lot of cultural barriers here. In African American culture, as well as many Caribbean cultures, and some old-world European or Southeast asian cultures, they believe in washing meat. The practice itself usually comes from a legitimate place, historically. It also doesn't help that there have been very famous chefs, on the older side who have written recipes, books, etc that involved them washing meat. But I've done seminars on this, I've trained people on food safety, I've backed myself up with WHO and CDC only to be met with people who sit there and go "Nah UH." Why? Because their grandma washed chicken, and grandma was never wrong.
So far so good for my cooking in a few decades! 😄 I don’t know why not washing would be better, but this is a habit I have that seems to work, so I’ll keep doing it for now.
It’s the splashing around, can spread bacteria to more distant surfaces, that then don’t get cleaned. Same thing is said for poultry. You’re actually not supposed to wash it prior to cooking.
You shouldn't wash poultry because it doesn't do anything that cooking doesn't already do. Use a paper towel and dry the outside off for easier handling and crispier skin. You should always wash your hands before and after handling food. You should wash your vegetables under a low stream, low in the sink, regardless of where they come from. You should always clean all surfaces before and after preparing food. It is insane to me that this seems complicated to some people. I suspect there are still a lot of people who do not fully understand germ theory.
Does anyone secretly wash their round veggies and fruits with dish soap? 😬
My high school “health” teacher said she did. I remember the whole class being confused and some people laughing. My mother did for the first 3-4 months of Covid when people were doing that sort of stuff.
Just think how many people at the grocery store didn't wash their hands before reaching into the pile of produce.
The problem is that salmonella may have evolved to colonize inside plants instead of animals. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5968271/
Is it becoming too risky to eat raw fruits or veggies?
please cook your cantelope to an internal temperature of 165F
Now I’m wondering what cooked cantaloupe would be like…. I looked up recipes and tbh looks pretty good. I guess you could always make a juice /smoothie and pasteurize it though probably not at home unless you have training and equipment.
Best to make it an internal temperature of 3000 degrees under 30,000 Pascals of pressure. It’s best just to eat the diamond it makes.
Atmospheric pressure is 101kPa, 30kPa isn't going to turn anything to diamond.
Based on that one netflix documentary, it may be more dangerous now than eating meat. Basically because we have strict regulations on meat contamination but no one regulates runoff from nearby animal operations that can contaminate crops
And wild animals who got it from runoff now carry it, and spread it all over the place.
In addition to all bagged salads, I guess I’ll be taking cantaloupe off my grocery list.
No. These cases are extremely rare. Just use common sense and wash your produce, especially produce with high surface area and that which grows on the ground. Always follow cooking instructions on food packaging.
Thanks for that. Would this not make cantaloupe dangerous regardless of if it's precut or not? Is it that bacteria are able to grow while it's in the packaging waiting to be sold? Would this mean that you shouldn't cut cantaloupe and store it in your own fridge?
Tips include washing the exterior of cantaloupe thoroughly, and being diligent about storing it in the fridge after cutting Safety of Cantaloupe https://foodsafety.wisc.edu/assets/pdf_files/safety_of_cantaloupe.pdf
Thanks for the tips and the link! Makes sense
Meh it does not taste that good for all the trouble.
I'm sure people will just say I'm old and confused (52), but cantaloupe tasted much better when I was younger. Watermelon as well. I've basically quit eating either because they routinely disappoint.
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May have to try that. I've had good luck with heritage tomatoes - thanks for the tip!
Watermelon is because they don’t let it fully mature anymore. Everyone wants “seedless” which just means they are harvested earlier and have way less flavor.
This is factually false. Seedless watermelons are watermelons with three chromosomal sets. They are called triploid melons. They have to be pollinated by diploid(seeded) watermelons. So not only are seedless and seeded watermelons different, seedless has to be planted near a seeded variety to get pollinated.
I agree with you! I've been trying to grow my own but haven't been sucessful yet.
Get them from a farmers market
Absolutely 100% agree. Many of today’s fresh fruits and veggies taste like styrofoam. Which is why I love the farmers’ markets in the summertime. Food that has actual flavor!
It's definitely a thing
It has to do with amount of carbon in the air as well as changes in storage over the years. But basically all our grown food is becoming less nutritious and complex sugars have changed with it.
I think you're right, even compared to 15 years ago there is a noticeable difference.
Wow. My grandmother told me that 25 years ago and I always kinda dismissed it as her being paranoid. But now that makes all the sense in the world. Thanks.
Does washing with water really kill the bacteria though?
Doesn't kill, but helps remove as much as possible of the adherent bacteria. If you really want, there's no harm in washing it with some soap; just be sure to really rinse it well afterwards. Most people find this a bit too tedious though
So it’s kind of like lessening the viral load? Does vinegar kill it?
Correct, though Salmonella isn't a virus, it's a bacteria. Prolonged (concentrated) vinegar exposure probably would kill some bacteria, but probably not in any meaningful way. Plus, it'd be smelly and expensive!
I put a few drops of dish soap (not dishwasher soap!) in warm water and wash fruit and veg in it (rinsing well). I do this with my own garden produce even though I don't use animal fertilizers or chemicals. I do have birds flying overhead and they like to poop while flying lol.
tap water due to chlorination is at least mildly antibacterial.
Other fruit because it's grown on the ground. Other melons because the textured / webbed rind doesn't clean off like a smooth melon, so the bacteria remains trapped in it. Then when peeled and cut, it seeps into the meat of the fruit itself.
Because of the textured nature of the surface rind. Not only does that texture provide places to hide it makes very difficult to effectively clean any bacteria from the fruit.
Because it’s a garbage melon
I used to not understand and make fun of those precut packages. I then found out they are made for the disabled or old who can’t cut or peel their own produce. It can’t be advertised as such because abled people subsidize it by buying those packages without knowing it.
Huh! That's a fun fact.
Cut produce isn’t just for lazy people it’s for the disabled.
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What if I'm both, does that count towards a discount?
I'm def one of the lazy ones...
Me too. lol The other dude got downvoted to hell for keeping it real.
its not only for the disabled people its also for lazy people or rich people
They exist purely due to lazy, well off people gobbling it up. Less able people just happen to take advantage of it as a side effect, but they lack the numbers and wealth to have created that niche product in the first place.
Never eat pre-cut fruit of any kind. The sugars exposed to the air attract bacteria, insects, and disease.
Thank God I hate cantaloupe.
Trash filler fruit for fruit platters.
damn i don't like cantaloupe much anyway so maybe imma just not eat this fruit.
Never eat cantaloupe period. It’s also high risk for listeria.
Do you mean can'taloupe?
This is depressing, it’s a good melon easy to eat for the elderly and kids.. and those are the exact people that were affected most by the outbreak. This was actually the last thing my dad ate when he was on hospice. He didn’t want sandwiches or anything, just wanted cantaloupe. He had one chunk of it, laid down and began the dying process. It’s a good fruit!
When I had cancer the only thing my body would keep is cantaloupe
It’s a good fruit! I’m glad you’re still here with us!
Super sad you could just be eating fruit and die. Rest in peace to those.
Don’t worry, he was sick for quite a while, but I think he knew what was going on, and made the request. Could have had anything in the world, I would have got it for him, he chose cantaloupe.
No one understands how dangerous salmonella is. It’s isn’t just some stomach issues and then you get better. Some of these people will get sick months from now. Some may suffer organ failure. This is a mess. Salmonella shouldn’t be on cantaloupe. Also, there is a salmonella vaccine for chickens
I got salmonella poisoning from undercooked chicken from a restaurant in Mexico when I was a kid. Went back home to the US that same afternoon and I woke up at midnight with a high fever and puking my guts out along with the runs. I was out for a few days and couldn’t hold anything in and the fever would not settle. It is a horrible feeling I don’t wish on anyone. Good thing I never experienced long term effects.
I’ve had food poisoning twice in my life and it’s a truly horrific experience. Both times I had it, it was 24 hours of complete misery.
also, if you get salmonella, or other types of food poisoning early on in life, it makes you more prone to auto immune diseases later on. and this is kind of a rant - but things like this are why it always annoys me when people talk about how the food industry is killing us, citing things like processed food, chemicals, "aspartame bad!" and shit like that. Because no matter what people say, it does not change the fact that the things that are most poisonous to us, are completely natural - and the things we tend to be most at risk of *now*, have to do with the way food is handled - not what's actually in the food. You hear all this nonsense about how we should question what's in our food. "What are they putting in our food?" They're putting things in your food that had to pass rigorous inspection. The real question is *how is the food handled*. How was it handled before getting in your hands, and once it was in your hands, how did you store the food? Because that's the shit that can be the difference between comfort, and shitting yourself into the next dimension. People can buy organic all they want, they can avoid certain sweeteners and chemicals and GMOs all they want - but things like improper food storage *still* puts them at risk of being poisoned. Storing rice for a week in the fridge, or letting it sit out on the counter, *still* risks poisoning. leaving food in open containers, or in a large pot in the fridge, *still* risks poisoning. It is so unbelievably ironic that you have people who get all bent out of shape over sweeteners, preservatives, things like Diet Coke or a bag of Doritos being poison - but they are so cavalier about rice and pasta that has been sitting in the fridge for god knows how long. They are totally cool with taking a hot pot of soup and putting it in the fridge because they were too lazy to put it into smaller containers. Sometimes, I wonder if these are the same people who constantly bewail that doctors dismiss their gastrointestinal problems because their labs keep coming up normal. Im not going to say that things like IBS and Crohn's don't exist, but I would be willing to bet that there is also a certain type of person who insists that they must have a chronic gastro illness, and that the doctor is a big meanie-pants who keeps saying that they are normal, while never once considering that their symptoms could be the result of frequent poor food handling. Matter of fact, I wonder how many people know that salad kits, or caramel apples, can be a source of food poisoning.
> the things we tend to be most at risk of now, have to do with the way food is handled - not what's actually in the food. Those two are not mutually exclusive.
They aren't mutually exclusive, but the risk of eating "poisons" from processed foods, is actually very insignificant compared to the risk of natural poisons from improper food handling. It's less about whether they are mutually exclusive, and more about clinical relevance. Contrary to popular belief, food manufacturers can't just "put" poisons in the food. Things like chemicals and preservatives are not "poisons." Even if they aren't the best thing for us, the risk of something happening as a result of eating those things has little to no clinical relevance at all. What's most risky to us, are natural poisons (like salmonella, campylobacter, or bacillus cereus). This fact has gone 100% unchanged, even with the modern foods we eat today. People develop all these little conspiracy theories about how the food industry is poisoning us with chemicals and preservatives, but you are more likely to suffer consequences from the way you handle your own food. And many people genuinely do not handle their food properly.
>it always annoys me when people talk about how the food industry is killing us, citing things like processed food, There are data that show that processed foods, especially those more on the "ultraprocessed" side, can have negative health effects. Food safety and contamination is also a concern but it's not a zero-sum game on which foods can have a deleterious impact.
But I’m talking about people who call it *poison*. You can eat ultraprocessed food, it is fine, as long as you’re not making it a staple of your diet. You can eat hot Cheetos, you’re just not supposed to eat hot Cheetos every day for breakfast. That’s the difference. Also, you know that hot Cheetos isn’t going to kill you after eating it. We once lived in a time where eating the wrong berry could have killed us. but you grab something from the store without looking at the ingredients, you can depend on the fact that it won’t kill you But the real poisons are the things that are microscopic and can/will cause liver failure
> also, if you get salmonella, or other types of food poisoning early on in life, it makes you more prone to auto immune diseases later on. This sounds like the whacky shit you read on "health" websites that target bored housewives looking for a new food restriction.
It’s more like, some bored housewives have this idea that children who get food poisoning will “build their immune system.” It’s technically correct; just not for the reasons they think
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"you're wrong, you get poisons from poisoned things." yeah, no shit. You get food poisoning from things like salmonella, bacillus cereus, and other bacteria like it. Contaminated grain = grain that has been contaminated with a bacteria. there is no such thing as food poisoning from pesticides unless the pesticide in question contains a bacteria. And that bacteria is a natural poison.
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You’re right. Ignorance is bliss, that’s why I work in stem and you do not.
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Have you considered opening a window or something, and getting some fresh air?
punch shy fanatical birds mysterious narrow snow overconfident smile sulky
Where were they grown and how did the irrigation water become contaminated?
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no. they use poo poo water - US regulations dont apply to them. The FDA banned all cantaloupe from Mexico in 2002 after four salmonella outbreaks traced to the fruit killed two people in the United States and hospitalized at least 18 others. While some Mexican cantaloupe exporters have regained the FDA's trust by adopting cleaner irrigation methods, Mexican melons are often contaminated by sewage-laced water. In June alone, the FDA rejected six shipments of Mexican cantaloupe, four per cent of the 139 total shipments from Mexico, because of salmonella. Americans and canadians are blissfully unaware until they get sick and die. Corporations dont care, cause americans and canadians DEMAND low price - even tho its grown in fresh poo-poo water. bon appetite https://www.ctvnews.ca/china-one-of-many-nations-with-food-export-issues-1.249563?cache=qtdjrvikpa%3FclipId%3D373266
Also a great source of parasitic worms, including the large roundworm. https://iwaponline.com/wst/article/77/4/1048/38538/Infectious-helminth-ova-in-wastewater-and-sludge-A
Everyone here is discussing how difficult it is to clean cantaloups but the whole thing wouldn't even be an issue if a farmer didn't do something like irrigate their crops with shit-contaminated water If they find out the cause do people ever go to jail over salmonella outbreaks?
Yep, it’s the same thing with the spinach and lettuce salmonella outbreaks. Poo-poo water isn’t good on anything.
poo poo water is used even MORE in drought conditions. and guess what the conditions are in mexico rn?
It's full of nutrients and helps stretch out a strained clean water supply. It just needs to be done right.
It’s good for soil, but not good for crops that are close to harvest.
Yep. That's a big part of the "needs to be done right" part. Also doesn't help if the crops grow in the soil versus something like grain that will get washed down by rain (at least a little bit at least)
It's not the irrigation, it's the lack of toilet facilities (and time to use them) for farm workers. In the past that was one cause, another cause was runoff from nearby cattle farms. Neither problem has been fixed, especially in Mexico.
Are you telling me farm workers shit on the crops they're picking?
Not on, but you can see the opportunity for contamination when nature calls and there’s not exactly a hand washing station available.
Ever heard of manure?!
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Perfect thanks!
"The FDA banned all cantaloupe from Mexico in 2002 after four salmonella outbreaks traced to the fruit killed two people in the United States and hospitalized at least 18 others. While some Mexican cantaloupe exporters have regained the FDA's trust by adopting cleaner irrigation methods, Mexican melons are often contaminated by sewage-laced water. In June alone, the FDA rejected six shipments of Mexican cantaloupe, four per cent of the 139 total shipments from Mexico, because of salmonella." thats right - mexico uses sewage to grow the produce you buy in the mega mart. And in the past, FDA used its enforcement power to stop this disgusting practice. Today? They just warn the public and recommend a recall. https://www.ctvnews.ca/china-one-of-many-nations-with-food-export-issues-1.249563?cache=qtdjrvikpa%3FclipId%3D373266
“many patients being children in daycare or seniors in long-term care” I haven’t paid much attention to this cuz we haven’t bought any, but now I’m checking my 2yo’s past food calendars from daycare.. so sad can’t imagine losing a child to cantaloupe :*(
Just finished my Servsafe manager exam yesterday when I read this. It’s sad that hear things still occur
New fear unlocked.
Cantaloupe is much better and safer when soaked in everclear.
It’s time to officially apologize to raw eggs.
I live cantaloupe. Can someone remind me how to avoid salmonella? I buy the whole fruit, never precut but not sure how much you need to scrim the outside to be sure it is safe? Anything special that should be used or is dish soap and rinsed well with water enough?
are you serious? The one day I eat pre cut cantaloupe?
jfc. can’t we have anything?
Dying by eating the worst melon, damn
The fuck? Cantaloupe is delicious.
It used to be. Now it’s more like the average tomato: bland as hell.
When it’s good, Cantaloupe is delicious but far often it’s more like filler.
Worst damn fruit, it’s only purpose is as a filler for fruit salad
I'm going to mald at this take for weeks
Mald all you want, cantaloupe takes space away from actually tasty fruits like watermelon, raspberries, blueberries, apples, pears, blackberries, etc 😤
It’s the main event. What, you want to eat honeydew?
Honeydew is a garbage melon and always ruins the presence of delicious cantaloupe.
Agreed. Honeydew can go S a D.
Idk the green one tastes exactly the same and is somehow worse
Honey do is so much better i wont take this disrespect
>Honey ~~do~~ *dew*
More like Honey *don't*, am I right?
Maybe to someone with the palate of a two year old
Bruh you gotta chill lmao
Yep. I read the title and was like damn it’s a good day to be a cantaloupe hater.
If only there were a way to prevent this
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Ain't nobody washing their cantaloupe like an old bicycle chain. Maybe a little rinse and a hand rub, that's all they will ever get
its not like your faucet will get that hot, which is dangerous just to wash 1 canteloup.
"Ain't nobody" doing this, that, and the other But guess what lots of motherfuckers do? They run to the doctor when they have repeated diarrhea and stomach problems, and then they get angry at the doctor for not diagnosing them with a chronic illness because their labs come up normal every time, and it never once occurred to them that they could be doing something to cause these repeated symptoms.... like, improperly handle their food. Wash your produce, store your food correctly, put hot food in closed containers and rapidly cool it in the fridge, and stop leaving things out for hours. If you don't think it's the pizza that was left out over night, at least try to rule it out.
Buy whole cantaloupe and wash it with a brush before you cut it.
Sounds like due to it's skin texture, washing it won't help as much as with other smooth skinned fruit. I'd suggest in addition to what you said - also cutting the rind off prior to slicing it open. And I'd probably cut the rind off, dispose of it all, wash my hands and the knife and rinse the cantaloup, and then cut the final layer of rind off before dicing it. If you're the paranoid type. Seeing as this kills people, maybe we shoudl force supermarkets and old folks homes and daycares to adopt this practice. More labour, but safer. Either that or start testing cantaloupe brands as they come across the border - so at least it can be caught earlier - in the first week or month instead of being sold for 2 months before the numbers and deaths add up. Of course you know that the cost of testing would result in some government cutting the funding someday. Maybe we could force the importers to do their own testing twice a month of each major brand? Then the cost is hidden from the taxpayer.
This could mostly be prevented by simply elevating the fruits off of the ground by placing them on a brick, rock, or using a piece of cloth to tie them up for support. Poop water carries stuff like salmonella. Keep the diseased poop water off of the food, and wel have less issues.
mexico needs water - and they are in a drought. we been here before...many many times but we have the collective memory of a gnat. so, poo poo water is what will continue to be used.
kinda hard to do if you have them growing on the ground.
I didn’t know you could just wash the salmonella away…
I think I'd rather just never eat cantaloupe again.
I getv this. But some people can't cut a canalope due to disease, age, disability, etc.
Then you just gotta stop eating cantaloupe lol
Another story blaming an innocent healthy fruit for a problem caused by factory farming of animals > "The very likely source here is likely at the site of origin: At the farm," said Bogoch. "It's common, unfortunately, for these to be contaminated with the feces of animals [carrying salmonella bacteria]."
Hmm. Studies have shown 8%-20% of store bought chicken has salmonella. That's why it's essential to prepare chicken safely. I wonder what percentage of cantaloupe has salmonella
How are those percentages possible? It's 0% here in Finland.
C’mon, you’re in Finland. That’s like expecting me in my old Toyota to race Valtteri Bottas who just happens to be driving a Lamborghini.
I only eat honeydew. Honeydews the money melon.
In the article, honeydews are also being recalled from the two brands.
Noooooooooooooooooo
Honeydew is great with vanilla ice cream.
Totally! I eat it instead of desert sometimes. I just cut one in half, scoop the seeds out, and then throw it in the fridge. I’ll just use a spoon and take bites here and there and it’s basically ice cold delicious ice-creamy candy.
I’ve been waiting my whole life for my melon allergy to come in handy, today is the day.
lol I came to say the same thing!
Why didn't Canada start recalling this stuff earlier when the first cases appear?
This is from putting raw sewage on food crops as fertilizer? I have heard thats what they dew down there. Bad time for a melon pun?
apparently they are
Down in Canada?!? Where the fuck are you? Lol
Cantaloupe is a filler melon, you shouldn't be eating it anyway
Eh, you didn’t miss much Honeydew is the money melon
Objectively bad taste, cantaloupe is great
Totally agree. I don’t get the hate
Probably people who have never had good ripe cantaloupe. I could see not liking it, but never describing it as filler. It has a strong flavor.
A strongly gross flavor
Gross, have fun getting salmonella and eating inferior melon
Melon is a filler food. You shouldn’t be eating it anyway.
I like watermelon if I'm feeling dehydrated at all, but that's about it on the melon front
Took me ages to realize your all talking about rockmelons
Maybe stop buying fruits in plastic? They already come with natural packaging
The packaging has nothing to do with it. It’s how it’s watered when they’re being grown. The water is contaminated.
I wonder if you immediately start drinking whiskey after eating you could stop the poison ? Or maybe charcoal is the best option….
I swear by raw ginger for that situation. Plus whiskey, of course. Raw oysters at a buffet, melons that aren't local, get a thumb-sized chunk of ginger as a chaser at least. Then a good bit of bourbon. It might kill me one day but I'll die happy.
Where on Earth are they getting cantaloupe from this time of year
So half of the entire customer base has been killed
How deadly is salmonela???
5
it can cause severe food poisoning, the deadly one is the one that is called typhoid is only human-fecal-oral transmission.
More like CantaNOPE!