[ROCKLOBSTER]

yet even well washed, this is serious enough for me to skip eating cantaloupe altogether until they give the "all clear."

Now just a bleepin second...are you indicating they were eating the rinds...or licking the skins? What the?

How do you "accidentally" contaminate the inside of a melon?

[Fantasywriter]

As soon as you slice through a melon, you contaminate the inside. The knife blade carries bacteria from the outside of the melon onto anything it touches, including the edible part.

[bd476]

ROCKLOBSTER wrote: " ' yet even well washed, this is serious enough for me to skip eating cantaloupe altogether until they give the "all clear." '

Now just a bleepin second...are you indicating they were eating the rinds...or licking the skins? What the?

How do you "accidentally" contaminate the inside of a melon?

I couldn't find any information about how they were contaminated, whether they were grown contaminated that is, without being cut, or whether the people didn't wash the outside of the cantaloupe before cutting them open.

Unwashed cantaloupe causing sickness would make more sense. Theoretically the knife blade would cut through a contaminated rind carrying the bacteria to the edible inside.

[brytlea]

I”m assuming that when you slice it your knife goes thru the rind and contaminates the fruit. I never wash the rind, it never occurred to me to do it.