Rocky Ford cantaloupe growers mobilize to ensure safety, rebuild confidence

Cantaloupe growers in Rocky Ford, Colo., have formed an association, trademarked the Rocky Ford Cantaloupe name and are signing on to best practices and twice-yearly audits in an effort to instill public confidence and avoid possible incidents of contamination.

Even though last fall’s deadly listeria outbreak in cantaloupe was traced to a grower 90 miles away in Holly, Colo., farmers in Rocky Ford, Colo., are responding as if it had happened in their own backyard.

The 2011 outbreak was traced to machinery and pooled waters that had developed in a packing shed at Holly-based Jensen Farms, which sold its melons under the “Rocky Ford” label. According to the CDC, the tainted cantalopue sickened 146, leaving 30 dead and causing one miscarriage.

There are more than two dozen melon growers in Rocky Ford. With expected lower demand this year, production has been scaled back to about 25 percent of the approximately 2,000 acres that are normally planted.

Growers have been participating in training, are implementing standard washing and cooling practices and adopting traceability technology which includes smartphone codes that consumers will be able to utilize to learn about the melons they are buying.

Meanwhile, industry leaders from across the country continue to meet in weekly webinars to develop new cantaloupe safety guidance. California’s cantaloupe industry is also taking steps to broaden its cantaloupe marketing order and develop a certification program similar to one that was implemented there for leafy greens.