Lawsuit Targets Colorado Cantaloupe Grower
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A lawsuit filed on behalf of a Hobbs woman who died in September after eating contaminated fruit says food safety auditors gave a Colorado cantaloupe farm a "superior" rating for safety and quality just weeks before health officials identified it as the source of a deadly bacterial outbreak.
The Albuquerque Journal reports a Seattle law firm filed the lawsuit on behalf of 96-year-old Florence Wilcox. She's one of five New Mexicans who died this fall after eating listeria-contaminated cantaloupe. The outbreak sickened 15 others in New Mexico.
Colorado grower Jensen Farms and two food-safety firms hired to audit the cantaloupe grower in July were named in the suit.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Seattle attorney Bill Marler says the lawsuit is the first filed in New Mexico on behalf of a victim of the listeria outbreak.