Burch Farms calls it a day on melons
Jimmy Burch, co-owner of the farm said, "We will let someone else raise the cantaloupe. We have already towed the equipment out of the building. It’s not worth the liability."
He pointed out that no one illnesses had been reported as a result of the associated listeria, but said that the recall was still a bad experience.
he said that the farm had been very careful, but that there was no way to completely remove the risk of listeria contamination.
"It’s a time bomb," he said. "It will happen again. This is a part of nature. It’s just a matter of time when there will be another outbreak somewhere."
About a month after news of the contamination initially broke, the recall was expanded from 5,200 melons to 188,900 across 10 states after the FDA discovered unsanitary conditions at Burch Farms' packing facilities. It was also expanded to include honeydews.
Source: huffingtonpost.com
