A Salmonella outbreak in Norway with almost 20 people sick has been linked to watermelon.
Folkehelseinstituttet (FHI) reported that of 13 ill people interviewed so far, all of them ate watermelon in the days before becoming sick. The melons were bought in various retail stores.
Eighteen people are part of the monophasic Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak and eight of them were hospitalized.
Patients are aged between 1 and 87 years old, 10 are men and eight women. They live in six different parts of the country with the most cases in Møre og Romsdal and Vestland but a few in Trøndelag, Rogaland, Troms and Finnmark and Innlandet.
Melon part of expert risk assessment meeting
Mattilsynet (The Norwegian Food Safety Authority) said it was highly unlikely that watermelons associated with the outbreak are still on the market. The fruit has a shelf life of three to four weeks. Most people became ill from the end of June to the middle of July.
Efforts are ongoing to trace where the implicated watermelons came from. Melon usually grows on the ground in countries with a warm climate.
To reduce the risk of infection, the Norwegian Food Safety Authority’s advice on safe handling includes do not use melons with deep damage to the skin, wash the melon and wipe it dry before cutting it into pieces, wash hands and equipment with soap and water after handling melon and keep sliced melon cool.
Melons have caused other outbreaks with several types of bacteria, said Taran Skjerdal, a researcher at the Norwegian Veterinary Institute.
“In this outbreak, it is Salmonella. In other countries, there have been major outbreaks of Listeria and several other foodborne pathogens. The World Health Organization and Food and Agriculture Organization have chosen to put special focus on melons in an international risk assessment. Work on this will begin in October,” said Skjerdal, who is part of the expert group doing the assessment.
