To date, 5 people in Maryland have been sickened in a Salmonella Kiambu outbreak linked to Maradol papayas that has sickened 47 people in 12 states.
The Maryland Department of Health is warning consumers not to eat Caribena’s yellow, Maradol papayas because they may be contaminated with Salmonella, bacteria that can cause severe food poisoning. These are the yellow variety, and they were distributed to stores throughout Maryland.
As part of an ongoing investigation, the Laboratories Administration collected 5 of these yellow Maradol papayas at a Baltimore retail store. Three of the five were found to be contaminated with Salmonella.
The department has not determined how or when these products became contaminated. It could have happened at any point-on the field, at the processing plant, during transportation, or at a distribution center. The investigation is ongoing.
Complications of salmonellosis can include severe dehydration, colitis, reactive arthritis, meningitis, and sepsis. We have had clients who died, and one of our current clients suffered meningitis, had multiple surgeries and is permanently brain damaged. Our law firm’s mission is to hold accountable companies that sell food contaminated with this dangerous pathogen.
Papayas Were Source of Past Salmonella Outbreak
In 2011, an investigation by the CDC, FDA and state health departments found a link between an outbreak of Salmonella Agona infections and whole, fresh papayas imported from Mexico. In this outbreak, 106 people were sickened in 25 states: Arkansas (1), Arizona (4), California (8), Colorado (1), Georgia (8), Illinois (18), Indiana (1), Kentucky (1), Louisiana (2), Massachusetts (1), Minnesota (3), Missouri (3), Nebraska (2), Nevada (1), New Jersey (1), New Mexico (3), New York (9), Ohio (1), Oklahoma (1), Pennsylvania (2), Tennessee (1), Texas (25), Virginia (2), Washington (5), and Wisconsin (2).
Ten of the people sickened were hospitalized.
The investigation included the testing of samples of papayas by the FDA. This testing found two samples with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Agona. One sample was collected at Agromod Produce, Inc. in McAllen, Texas, a U.S. Company that had imported the papayas from Mexico. The second positive sample was collected at the U.S.-Mexico border. That papaya that provided that sample was on its way to Agromod Produce, Inc.
There was a recall of these products at the time of the outbreak.
Get Legal Help
You can contact our law firm for a free consultation. Our Salmonella lawyers help people throughout the United States who are sickened by contaminated food.
Read other 2017 news.