Colorado cantaloupe farmers arrested in listeria outbreak that killed 33

In this Sept. 28, 2011, file photo, co-owner Eric Jensen examines cantaloupe on the Jensen Farms near Holly, Colo. Jensen and Ryan Jensen, 33, were taken into custody on federal charges of introducing adulterated food into interstate commerce. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski, File)

The owners of a Colorado cantaloupe farm were arrested Thursday on charges stemming from a 2011 listeria epidemic that killed 33 people in one of the nation's deadliest outbreaks of foodborne illness.

Federal prosecutors said brothers Eric and Ryan Jensen were arrested on misdemeanor charges of introducing adulterated food into interstate commerce.

The Jensens' attorney did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Prosecutors said the federal Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control determined that the Jensen's didn't adequately clean the cantaloupe.

The FDA has said the melons likely were contaminated in Jensen Farms' packing house. It concluded that dirty water on a floor, and old, hard-to-clean equipment probably were to blame.

The outbreak was the deadliest outbreak of foodborne illness in 25 years. The CDC said people living in 28 states consumed contaminated cantaloupe.

A number of lawsuits were filed by people who were sickened or who had a family member die after the outbreak.

Eric Jensen, 37, and Ryan Jensen, 33, operated their farm in southeastern Colorado. The farm filed for bankruptcy after the outbreak.

The FDA said Jensen Farms had bought the used processing equipment just before the outbreak, and it was corroded, dirty and hard to clean. The packing facility floors also constructed were so they were hard to clean, so pools of water potentially harboring the bacteria formed close to the packing equipment, according to the FDA.

The dirty equipment previously was used to wash and dry potatoes, the agency said, and the listeria could have been introduced as a result of its past use.

The FDA said the way the cantaloupes were cooled after being picked may have exacerbated the listeria growth, and that another possible source of contamination was a truck that frequently hauled cantaloupe to a cattle operation and was parked near the packing house.

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Central Pa. farmer's corn crop yields 4-headed ear

HANOVER, Pa. (AP) — When farmer Ben Klunk tells people about the mutant corn he found, they're all ears.

Klunk said Wednesday he discovered an ear of sweet corn with four heads on his central Pennsylvania farm and has been keeping it in his refrigerator.

Klunk said that when he pulled the corn out of the crop he initially thought there was mud holding it together, but his wife said that wasn't the case.

"It started out as one," Marie Klunk said, "and then it split, and then another one split."

The farmer, who's 81, said he's never seen corn multiply in such a way: He'd never found a double- or triple-headed ear of corn, let alone a quadruple one.

"And I've pulled a lot of sweet corn!" he said.

The Klunks said they don't plan to eat the corn, which was pulled from their farmland in Hanover, 20 miles southwest of the state capital, Harrisburg, and was first reported by The Evening Sun newspaper. They said if it stays fresh for another 10 days they'll enter it into a contest at the South Mountain 4-H Fair.

But the Klunks aren't sure it'll last that long in the refrigerator and suspect it's already turning. If that happens, they said, they'll just throw the mutated husk away.

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