Cantaloupe linked to a Salmonella outbreak across Australia in 2006
What it found
People who ate cantaloupe were about 24 times more likely to fall ill with Salmonella during an Australian outbreak.
The same Salmonella strain was also found on the skin of two melons from a shop.
What they found
Studies in people
Illness linked to cantaloupe
After accounting for age and other foods, people who got sick were about 24 times more likely to have eaten cantaloupe in the previous four days than healthy people. No other food showed this strong a link.
Symptoms in sick people
All 36 sick people had diarrhoea. Most also had fever, stomach cramps or vomiting. Illness lasted a median of 7 days, and nine people needed hospital care.
Animal and lab studies
How bacteria cling on
The net-like texture of cantaloupe skin gives bacteria places to hide that are hard to clean. In lab tests by other researchers, Salmonella moved 3 to 4 cm into damaged melon flesh after 7 days.
Other findings
Salmonella found on melons
Lab tests found the exact outbreak strain of Salmonella on the skin of two cantaloupes bought from one shop identified by a sick person. Other types of Salmonella were found on two more melons from Queensland.
Problems at farms and sheds
Inspectors visited six processors and found issues like untreated water used on ready-to-eat fruit, incorrect use of disinfectants, and bruised fruit being processed. Thirteen out of 59 environmental samples contained Salmonella, though not the outbreak strain.
What the authors conclude
- They say that the way cantaloupes are grown and packed creates a risk of contamination that current quality programmes are not stopping.
- They call for new rules covering fresh produce and better advice for shoppers at the point of sale.
- The authors advise people not to buy bruised melons, to refrigerate cut fruit, and to throw away cut melon left out for more than 2 hours.
How it was done
In late 2006, health officials noticed a sudden jump in Salmonella Saintpaul infections across several Australian states. They launched this investigation to find the source and work out how to stop it.
Researchers compared 36 sick people with 106 healthy people in three Australian regions between October and November 2006. They asked both groups what they had eaten in the four days before illness or interview. They also tested melons from shops and took 59 environmental samples from farms and packing sheds.
What it can’t tell you
- This study looked back at what people remembered eating, so recall problems could affect the results. The gap between getting sick and being interviewed was a median of 19 days.
- Investigators could not trace the contaminated melons back to one specific farm because records were poor and fruit from different growers was mixed together.
The paper
- Title
- A multi-state outbreak of Salmonella Saintpaul in Australia associated with cantaloupe consumption
- Type
- Study
- Evidence
- Studies in people · animals · lab
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Cite
- Munnoch SA, Ward K, Sheridan S, et al (2009). A multi-state outbreak of Salmonella Saintpaul in Australia associated with cantaloupe consumption. Epidemiology and infection. doi:10.1017/S0950268808000861Free full textPubMed 18559128DOI
Summary written 30 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error