Listeria in Fruit

By Mary Clare Jalonick

What is listeria?

Listeria is a bacteria found in soil and water that can be carried by animals. It is often found in processed meats because it may contaminate a processing facility and stay there for a long period of time. It is also common in unpasteurized cheeses and unpasteurized milk. It is less common in vegetables and fruit, like cantaloupe, but there have been a couple of listeria outbreaks in fruits and vegetables in recent years. When a person contracts the disease, it can cause fever, muscle aches, gastrointestinal symptoms and even death. One in five people who have listeria die.

Am I at risk?

Listeria generally only affects the elderly, people with compromised immune systems, pregnant women, and newborns whose mothers were infected before birth. The median age of victims in outbreaks is 78 years old. Healthy, younger adults and most children can usually consume listeria with no ill effects or mild illness.

So can I eat cantaloupes and other fruit?

You should avoid cantaloupes from any farms that ever distributed infected fruit.

I think I may have had one of the contaminated cantaloupes in my home. What should I do even if I am not sure?

The government's motto is "when in doubt, throw it out." If you think you had infected fruit in your home, clean and sanitize all surfaces it may have touched.

I scrub all of my fruits and vegetables before I eat them. Am I okay?

Scrubbing is never a bad idea, but it may not rid produce of all contaminants, especially on cantaloupe which has a thick, rough skin with a lot of places for pathogens to hide. Health officials think people may have been sickened when people cut into their cantaloupes, bringing listeria on the outside of the fruit to the inside. If you think you may have a tainted cantaloupe in your house, the best thing to do is to throw it out.

Why have there been so many deaths from listeria?

Listeria is less well-known than other pathogens like salmonella and E. coli, which cause many more illnesses in tainted food every year. But listeria is more deadly. One in five people who contract it can die.
What organizational structure is used in this informational article?

A) debate
B) question and answer
C) problem and solution
D) compare and contrast