Suspicion falls on watermelon in Salmonella outbreak in Norway

A salmonella outbreak in Norway with 18 sick people has been linked to watermelon. The Norwegian public health institute Folkehelseinstituttet (FHI) reports that each of the 13 sick people interviewed so far had eaten watermelon in the days before they got sick. The melons were bought in different stores. The sick were affected by monophasic Salmonella Typhimurium and eight of them have been hospitalized. Patients are between 1 and 87 years old, 10 men and 8 women. They live in six different parts of the country. Most of them live in Møre og Romsdal and Vestland, the others in Trøndelag, Rogaland, Troms og Finnmark and Innlandet. Attention to (water)melon in international risk assessmentThe Norwegian food safety authority Mattilsynet indicates that it is highly unlikely that there are still watermelons on the market linked to the outbreak. The fruit can be kept for three to four weeks. Most people got sick from the end of June to the middle of July. An attempt is now being made to ...