(AP) – Federal health officials said Wednesday more illnesses and possibly more deaths might be linked to an outbreak of listeria in cantaloupes from Colorado in coming weeks.

So far, the outbreak has caused at least 72 illnesses — including as many as 16 deaths — in 18 states, making it the deadliest U.S. food outbreak in more than a decade.

Texas has reported the second-highest number of people ill in the outbreak with 14 cases, second only to Colorado, which has 15 cases.

All 14 Texas patients have been hospitalized, including two who died in North Texas and a patient in Central Texas, according to Carrie Williams, spokeswoman for the Department of State Health Services. She declined to name the counties, saying, “We are providing location at the regional level, rather than county, due to confidentiality concerns.”

The ill person in Central Texas didn’t live in Travis County, said Carole Barasch, spokeswoman for the Austin/Travis County Department of State Health Services.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration said consumers who have cantaloupes produced by Jensen Farms in Colorado should throw them out. If they aren’t sure where the melon is from, they shouldn’t eat it.

Neither the government nor Jensen Farms has supplied a list of retailers who might have sold the fruit. Officials say consumers should ask retailers about the origins of their cantaloupe. If they still aren’t sure, they should get rid of it.

“If it’s not Jensen Farms, it’s OK to eat,” CDC chief Thomas Frieden said. “But if you can’t confirm it’s not Jensen Farms, then it’s best to throw it out.”

H-E-B, the dominant grocer in Central Texas, said it doesn’t buy the melons from Colorado, H-E-B spokeswoman Leslie Sweet said. H-E-B’s cantaloupes come from Texas and California farms, Sweet said.

Whole Foods stores did remove cantaloupes from their shelves on Sept. 14 as a precaution, spokeswoman Libba Letton said, but the organic chain doesn’t purchase products from the Jensen Farms.

Jensen Farms says it shipped cantaloupes to 25 states, but illnesses have been discovered in several states that weren’t on the shipping list. A spokeswoman for Jensen Farms officials said the company’s product is often resold, so they don’t always know where it went.

The recalled cantaloupes may be labeled “Colorado Grown,” ”Distributed by Frontera Produce,” ”Jensenfarms.com” or “Sweet Rocky Fords.” Not all of the recalled cantaloupes are labeled with a sticker, the FDA said. The company said it shipped out more than 300,000 cases of cantaloupes that contained five to 15 melons, meaning the recall involved 1.5 million to 4.5 million melons.

Frieden and FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said that illnesses are expected for weeks to come because the incubation period for listeria can be a month or more. That means that someone who ate contaminated cantaloupe last week might not get sick until next month. Jensen Farms last shipped cantaloupes Sept. 10. They have a shelf life of about two weeks.

“We will see more cases likely through October,” Hamburg said.