Bacteria Fear Leads to Recall of Cheese

A Paramount-based cheese manufacturing company has voluntarily recalled about 10,000 packages of one of its products after a unit in New York tested positive for a potentially fatal bacterium.

Ariza Cheese Co. began recalling Queso Fresco Cheese from about 250 stores in California and New York after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration notified the company that one package was found to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, said Blake Johnson, Ariza’s general manager.

“Based on that information, we wanted to do the most responsible thing we could,” said Johnson, adding that there have been no reports of people sickened by the cheese.

The bacterium can cause listeriosis, a flu-like illness that is most dangerous to babies, fetuses, the elderly and those with weak immune systems. Symptoms include fever, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

The recall started July 31, the day that federal officials notified Ariza about the cheese in New York, Johnson said.

The contaminated cheese was manufactured June 11 and had a “must-sell” date of Aug. 11.

Johnson said the company decided to pull back everything up to Sept. 26.

Latin-style cheese is a thriving industry in the United States that rebounded after a massive food poisoning outbreak in the mid-1980s that left 40 people dead and the industry weakened.

Ariza is a family-owned company with about 30 employees that distributes to mostly independent stores, 35 of them in New York.

The firm hires an independent testing company, Johnson said. The contamination found by the FDA was not revealed during Ariza’s routine tests.

Ariza has suspended production of Queso Fresco until the company figures out why its test results and those of the FDA did not match, Johnson said.