In March, 2008, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration advised people not to eat cantaloupes from a Honduran grower because the fruits may be contaminated with Salmonella and have sickened 50 people in the U.S. and Canada.

Doug Powell of the International Food Safety Network looks at how cantaloupes and prepared and what you can do, if anything, to reduce the risk of Salmonella from the melons.

The latest iFSN infosheet recommends that cantaloupe be refrigerated as soon as they have been sliced up because bacteria such as Salmonella, can grow nicely on the orange meat of the fruit at room temperature.

If you wash the outside of the cantaloupe, vigorously use a scrub brush under running water to remove any easy-to-get to bacteria (and try not to splash the water all around the kitchen).