Watermelon Association Works on Food Safety Image

The National Watermelon Association hopes its recently released commodity-specific food safety program will help the industry implement common practices and prove its commitment to food safety.

Watermelons have been lumped in with cantaloupe and other melons as a high-risk fresh produce item.

“We’re guilty by association,” said Bob Morrissey, executive director of the Plant City, Fla.-based association. “There has not been a single outbreak related to our industry according to the (Food and Drug Administration).”

The only watermelon-specific illness reports, three of them since 1990, were caused by consumer at-home handling, he said.

In March, salmonella linked to Honduran cantaloupe from a single shipper caused 51 reported illnesses in 16 states in the U.S. In October 2002, the FDA halted shipments of Mexican cantaloupe after salmonella outbreaks in 2000, 2001 and 2002 were linked to the melons.

Morrissey said he has petitioned the FDA twice this year to take watermelon off the high-risk list, but has been denied.

The first edition of the food safety plan, released in late October, is being reviewed by more than 80 industry members and food safety experts, including growers-shippers, retailers, restaurants, universities, a traceability technology company, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the FDA. A second version is expected to be released at the watermelon association’s national convention Feb. 18-22 in Charleston, S.C.

Source: The Packer