200 pounds of contaminated food headed to central Indiana restaurants in semi destroyed

Less than two years after local media uncovered dangerous conditions in trucks transporting perishable food, and a year after a state law went into effect to crack down on shippers, police say more than 200 pounds of food headed to central Indiana restaurants was destroyed after it was found leaking from the back of a tractor-trailer.

According to TheIndyChannel, a trooper stopped the truck on Interstate 74 near the 153 mile marker in Ripley County just after 9 a.m. Saturday for a MelonTruckstraffic violation.

As the driver, Jerome Upshaw, 46, of Cincinnati, drove toward a rest area for a commercial vehicle inspection, the trooper noticed a brown liquid dripping from the back of the semi, police said.

Inside the trailer, the trooper found open boxes of vegetables sitting on boxes of chicken, as well as raw chicken sitting on open boxes of vegetables, police said.

The Ripley County Health Department reported 16 packages of broccoli, egg roll filling, poultry and cabbage were unfit for human consumption due to unsafe handling and cross contamination issues, and 200 pounds of food was destroyed.

The truck was set to make deliveries to Chinese restaurants in Mooresville, Avon, Plainfield and Indianapolis, police said.

The driver was also cited for 11 minor commercial vehicle violations.