Contaminated Cantaloupe have sickened people with salmonella and even killed two people.At first the FDA just said the contaminated cantaloupe came from a farm in Indiana. It took days for them to name the specific farm, which turned out to be Chamberlain farms just north of Evansville. But in the days it took to identify that location farmers here in Northern Indiana, with good cantaloupes, say their business suffered. "Immediately it stopped our sales in half because people became afraid of Cantaloupe," said Chuck Mohler who owns Sweet Corn Charlie's.
All their produce is grown on a farm in Millersburg, Indiana. And even though he says their produce is fine, hysteria over tainted cantaloupes is costing him. "We ended up throwing away a lot of our cantaloupe cause they didn't sell cause people are just afraid of them," said Mohler.
Even though the FDA has now identified a southern Indiana farm in the matter Mohler said unfortunately that won't help his cantaloupe business. "It's like if a school bus overturns in Colombia going around some mountain. A mother's afraid to put her kids in the school bus."
And he seems to be right. Often in these cases, customers start to avoid the fruit they're hearing about in the media altogether. April Nelson said, "I think it could come from any farmer at any time." And that's exactly the sentiment Mohler is afraid of. He's hoping to get out this message, "we work very hard to have high quality clean produce other growers around here do too."
They're participate in GAP or Good Agricultural Practices. They wash all their produce in a chlorine bath and partake in several other cleanliness routines.
Sweet Corn Charlie's said that when hysteria like this spreads well beyond the source it really hurts farmers livelihoods. They've heard of farmers losing their farms over tainted tomato scares and hopes that doesn't happen to anyone here in Northern Indiana.
As for the tainted cantaloupes they have all been removed from the shelves of stores. The grower has also agreed not to sell anymore during this growing season. The only way you may have one at home is if it's older. And again it would have to be from Chamberlain Farms. The CDC says many cantaloupes have a sticker on them that identifies where they were grown so you can check that.
