Tainted melons make dozens sick in salmonella outbreak

Precut varieties recalled in 8 states from Ohio to Georgia.

At least 60 people have been sickened and dozens have been hospitalized with salmonella after tainted precut melons were distributed to stores such as Walmart, Kroger, Costco and Whole Foods in several states, federal officials said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention traced the outbreak to a Caito Foods facility in Indiana. The company has since issued a recall notice in Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio — removing clear plastic containers of watermelon, honeydew, cantaloupe and mixed melons from the shelves.

The recall affected at least 10 large grocery chains, including Whole Foods, which is a subsidiary of Amazon.com, whose chief executive, Jeff Bezos, owns The Washington Post

“The investigation is ongoing to determine if products went to additional stores or states,” the CDC wrote Friday.

People who ate those precut melon products began falling ill with the salmonella adelaide strain of the bacteria in late April, and hospitalization spiked two weeks later, with patients ranging from an infant to a 97-year-old.

So far, the CDC said, 31 of 60 victims have been hospitalized, though none have died.

The reported patient count in the latest outbreak could still climb, and is already higher than a wave of salmonella that hit the East Coast last spring, which was linked to a rodent-infested egg farm.