Cantaloupe tainted by listeria have led to 13 deaths, and now, a lawsuit against Jensen Farms and Walmart.

The lawsuit says that the Colorado Springs man bought a Jensen Farms cantaloupe at Walmart on August 17th. He ate it all in one sitting, which gave him a stomach ache that he quickly got over. But then 11 days later he couldn’t get out of bed due to an incredible headache.

“He (coughed) and I said, ‘Are you OK?’ And his eyes started to roll in the back of his head … He couldn’t talk or anything so that’s when I called 911,” his wife told KMGH.

At the hospital he tested positive for listeria monocytogenes.

Listeria is a pathogen that lives in the food, soil and animals, uncooked vegetables and fruits. Symptoms manifest first as diarrhea or other gastrointestinal symptoms, which then lead to fever, muscle aches, headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and convulsions. It has a fatality rate of 25%. Salmonella has a fatality rate of less than 1%.

To reduce your risk, you should always thoroughly cook meats and vegetables, avoid consuming unpasteurized milk, and maintain adequate procedures to avoid cross-contamination in the kitchen.

The lawsuit alleges that the “defendants owed a duty to the plaintiffs to manufacture and sell a food product that conformed to its express and implied warranties, including, but not limited to, the implied warranty of merchantability and the implied warranty of fitness for a particular use or purpose.”

The farm has launched a nationwide recall and destroyed its entire cantaloupe crop. Consumers with questions can contact Jensen Farms at recall@rfordcantaloupe.com or by 1-800-267-4561. The lawsuit is the first against them, so far.

Jensen Farms React To Lawsuit, Recall [KMGH]

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A Truly Alarming Number Of People Are Dying From Eating Tainted Cantaloupe

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