WASHINGTON, D.C. — Food safety is once again making news as the worst outbreak of listeriosis in 10 years is moving through the country. The source most likely are cantaloupes from Colorado, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The agency reported last Friday that 84 people in 19 states had been stricken with the illness, with 15 deaths reported. It appears most of the illnesses started on or before July 31.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a press release two weeks ago “warning consumers not to eat Rocky Ford Cantaloupe shipped by Jensen Farms and to throw away recalled product that may still be in their home.” It noted: “The majority of the patients reported eating cantaloupe marketed from the Rocky Ford growing region.

“FDA’s traceback data from the state of Colorado about their confirmed cases of Listeria monocytogenes have identified a common producer of Rocky Ford cantaloupes. That producer is Jensen Farms. Although the investigation is ongoing, no other Rocky Ford cantaloupe producer has been found in common in the Colorado traceback.”

If this outbreak wasn’t enough, the FDA also recently announced a lettuce recall: “True Leaf Farms is expanding its voluntary recall of romaine to include 2,498 cartons of chopped or shredded romaine because of the potential of contamination with Listeria monocytogenes,” the agency stated in another press release.

“The initial recalled product was shipped between Sept. 12 and 13 to a retail food service distributor in Oregon who further distributed it to at least two additional states, Washington and Idaho.”

Adding to those occurrences is a voluntary organic grape tomato recall by Andrew Williamson Fresh Produce in California, affecting all 50 states and Canada; a beef recall by Tyson Fresh Meats affecting several states, including Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Tennessee, Ohio and Missouri; and a pureed pork product recall from K. Heeps, Inc. in Pennsylvania shipped within that state and to California, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Texas, Utah and Virginia for institutional use. The grape tomato recall was issued because of a salmonella scare, while the beef is due to E. coli concerns and the pork products because of the discovery of foreign materials in the food.

All these scares come in the year when the FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act was signed into law. The new regulations marked the first significant change of U.S. food safety measures in several decades and were designed to take a proactive stance to food contamination.

The USDA has also taken measures to ensure a safe food supply through grants to educational institutions researching food safety. Jeanette Thurston a national program leader for food safety with the USDA’s National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA), said the agency issues different grants, some for as much as $5 million, for a variety of research endeavors including programs that target specific priorities.

One such program will focus on shiga toxigenic E. coli in beef, answering many questions from understanding its transmission in the environment to the shedding by the animal to intervention strategies for controlling these pathogens in beef, she said. Another program is one focused on viruses: understanding where they are, their survival and fate and how to intervene and reduce them.

Thurston noted for these university programs, the kind of research they are conducting is incredibly expensive and awards such as the ones from the NIFA are valuable in helping prevent foodborne illnesses, rather than combating them.

“We don’t always want to be chasing a problem; in other words, we would like to take a more proactive approach to food safety,” she said. Another of the NIFA awards is going to an emerging issues program for food safety which looks at certain pathogens that might not pose a problem but have the potential to be important.

The USDA has also developed a “Be Food Safe” campaign in cooperation with the CDC, FDA and the Partnership for Food Safety Education to better inform the public on food safety measures. The program emphasizes four steps to help prevent foodborne illnesses: wash hands and surfaces often; don’t cross-contaminate; cook to proper temperatures; and refrigerate promptly.

Even though the suspected cantaloupes linked to the current outbreak of listeriosis have been recalled, the CDC warns more people may become ill because of “the time lag between diagnosis and laboratory confirmation, and also because up to two months can elapse between eating contaminated food and developing the illness.”