Watermelons Reappear in Markets

Watermelons began reappearing in Orange County grocery stores Thursday, one week after the popular summer fruit had been removed following a pesticide poisoning epidemic.

The restocking of watermelons, some of them from California growers and others from out of state, was a bit sporadic at first but was expected to continue so that there will be supplies for the weekend.

In response to widespread reports of illness, state health officials ordered all watermelons pulled from grocery bins on the Fourth of July. At least 280 people in California and four other Western states became ill from eating melons tainted with the pesticide aldicarb.

On Monday, the state Department of Food and Agriculture ordered all harvested watermelons destroyed and announced that only melons bearing special stickers could be sold. The sticker indicates that the field from which the melon originated is free of aldicarb.

“I hope they’re safe now,” said Martha Hudson as she picked over a pile of the melons in an Albertson’s Food Center in Corona del Mar.

Hefting a large melon that bore the required sticker, she said, “I guess we’re going to find out pretty soon, aren’t we?”

Other shoppers weren’t so quick to buy, although some stopped to inspect the melons.

The Price Factor

“I think they’re still a little shy, and I really don’t blame them,” said Phil Matrazzo, the produce manager at the Coast Highway store.

Price might also have had something to do with the shoppers’ reluctance. At Matrazzo’s store and at a Vons market in Irvine, which was selling Arizona melons, the price was 19 cents a pound.

“That’s awful for watermelon” and “I’m not paying that much now” were among the comments of those who passed the melon displays at the two stores.

A lower price will be offered today when Lucky Discount Supermarkets resume selling the fruit, according to Bob Wagoner of the chain’s Tustin store.

“Right now, they’ll be going for 13 cents, which is the same price they were before all this happened,” Wagoner said. “Of course, how long that will hold is something nobody can tell.”

At least two large market chains reported Thursday that they would delay restocking the fruit.

“We haven’t got any yet, and I believe the company is going hold off a few days before they become available,” said Jack Long of the Ralphs store in Santa Ana.

Likewise, watermelons were not being sold at Safeway stores, where managers said they had no idea when they would become available there.

The absence of watermelons may have caused some shoppers to substitute other items for summer meals.

“There was a kind of overall increase (in purchases of) all summer fruits,” said Wagoner of Lucky in Tustin, “but there wasn’t that much extra to compensate for the loss of the watermelons.”

Matrazzo at Albertson’s in Corona del Mar said he noted a pickup in cantaloupe sales, “but there wasn’t too much on the others, like honeydews.”

Long said that at the Ralphs in Santa Ana, all melon sales seemed “to really die down. People were just a little bit leery of it all.”

Agriculture officials said some stores are being supplied with melons from other states and from Mexico. Melons from Arizona were being tested and stamped with a different sticker. It reads, “This commodity has been inspected by the State of Arizona and approved for human consumption.”

Mexican watermelons are being tested by federal workers and stamped with the same sticker used on California fruit.

Texas and Oklahoma melons were still not being allowed on the market in California on Thursday. Officials said they were not satisfied that those states had established a method to test the fruit for aldicarb.

Meanwhile, state officials announced that 43 more fields had been found to be free of aldicarb, meaning that melons from them can be harvested and sold. The testing of melon patches is expected to take a week.