TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (CNN) -- He's no Julia Child, but Honduran President Manuel Zelaya showed Tuesday he can attack a cantaloupe and U.S. government claims in a single motion.

President Manuel Zelaya chews on a slice of Honduran melon to demonstrate its safety.

"It's not in our fruit," he said about last week's report by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that some Honduran cantaloupes may be contaminated with salmonella. "It's not true what they are saying. Logically, we believe it is an error."

Then, the 55-year-old father of four asked the viewers of CNN en Español to indulge him as he engaged in a show-and-tell demonstration. "Permit me a second," he said as he stretched his left arm across the tabletop and outside the view of the camera, then pulled into view a box of fruit.

"Here I have the box of melons that we are exporting to the United States; here are the protective bags," he said.

Zelaya lifted a cantaloupe from the box, placed it in front of him, then grabbed a knife and a fork.

"Permit me to make a demonstration," he said, then cut open the fruit, sliced off a chunk, put it in his mouth and chewed vigorously.

"I eat this fruit without any fear," he said with his mouth full. "It's a delicious fruit. Nothing happens to me!"

Though the symptoms of salmonella infection -- nausea, vomiting, fever, diarrhea and abdominal cramps -- typically do not occur for several hours after eating tainted food, the point was made.

The demonstration came three days after the FDA said it had linked 50 cases of salmonella in 16 states and nine in Canada to melons from Agropecuaria Montelibana, a grower and packer in San Lorenzo, Honduras.

Though there have been no reports of fatalities, 14 people have been hospitalized in Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin, the FDA said.

While the company has continued exporting to Europe and Central America and has received no reports of illness, the daily export of 45 containers of melon to the United States has halted, a company official said Monday.

As a result, some 1,500 workers have been laid off, most of them single mothers, and company losses have exceeded $3 million, company officials said.

The FDA alert advised U.S. grocers, food-service operators and produce processors to remove from their stock any cantaloupes from the company.

The agency also recommended consumers throw away any cantaloupes determined to be from the company. E-mail to a friend

CNN's Elvin Sandoval contributed to this story.

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