Cantaloupe Importer Withdraws Tort Claims Against Epidemiologist and Oregon Public Health

Del Monte Fresh Produce has reportedly informed Oregon Public Health and
state Senior Epidemiologist William Keene that it will not act on its notice to
sue over their identification of the company’s imported cantaloupes as the
source of a 2011 Salmonella outbreak. Additional details about the litigation
threat appear in Issue 408 of this Update. While a spokesperson refused to
comment on the company’s action, its letter apparently indicated that the withdrawal was “a show of good faith” in its food safety discussions with the
state; it is seeking a meeting with state food safety scientists.

Del Monte Fresh Produce also sued the Food and Drug Administration (FDA),
claiming that the agency lacked an adequate factual basis to conclude
that the company’s Guatemalan cantaloupe supplier was the source of
the contamination. The company sought to lift FDA’s import alert which
prohibited it from importing from its Guatemalan source without proving
the fruit was “negative” for Salmonella and other pathogens. In an ethics
complaint filed against Oregon’s epidemiologist, the company reportedly
accused him of conducting a shoddy investigation and of instigating the FDA
recall. According to a news source, the import alert has since been lifted and
Oregon’s Government Ethics Commission dismissed the ethics complaint. See
OregonLive.com, March 14, 2012.