A spike of listeria cases amongst the elderly has led to a recall of the fruit, known as 'rockmelon' in Australia.

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) is coordinating a trade recall of whole rockmelons after 10 people became ill after consuming the fruit.

The listeria outbreak has been linked to a grower in Nericon in the northwestern part of Riverina in New South Wales.

The state's Food Authority reports the company voluntarily ceased production on Feb. 23, shortly after being notified of a potential link to illness, and is working proactively with the authority to further investigate how any contamination could have occurred in order to get back into production as soon as possible.

"Any affected product is being removed from the supply chain, so consumers can be assured rockmelons currently available on shelves are not implicated in this outbreak," the NSW Food Authority said.

"All states and territories are working together to investigate the outbreak and to date they have identified ten cases in elderly patients in NSW (six), Victoria (one) and Queensland (three) with onset of illness notification dates between 17 January and 9 February 2018."

Coles has withdrawn all rockmelons from sale in our Coles Supermarkets and from Coles online. Rockmelons sold in our Western Australian stores have been sourced from a different supplier. This withdrawal was enacted on the advice of the NSW Food Authority.

— Coles Supermarkets (@Coles) February 28, 2018

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