Blue Cheese Recalled for Listeria

An Iowa cheese maker is recalling its Raw Milk Blue Cheese after the Iowa Department of Ag discovered Listeria during routine testing.  The facility is recalling on lot, produced on January 6th (over one month ago).  There have been no reported illnesses.

An issue that can be seen in these cases is that when one lot is contaminated with Listeria, there is always a good chance that other lots can potentially be contaminated, especially if the facility does not have good environmental controls for Listeria in place.

Newtown Daily News
http://www.newtondailynews.com/2016/02/14/maytag-dairy-farms-announces-listeria-recall/ahwo2zy/
Maytag Dairy farms announces listeria recall
Fareway of Newton had some blue cheese from lot; Hy-Vee did not
Published: Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016 9:34 p.m. CST • Updated: Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016 9:39 p.m. CST

Maytag Dairy Farms of Newton announced a voluntary recall Saturday of an 896-pound of blue cheese due to possible listeria contamination.

The foodmaker announced lot number 150481 of Maytag Raw Milk Blue Cheese could be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. The recalled product was packaged on Jan. 6 and was then distributed to several locations in central Iowa.

Products from the lot ended up at Fareway of Newton, HoQ restaurant in Des Moines, the Bear Restaurant in Ankeny, Wine Experience in West Des Moines, Lomar Distributing, Inc. in Des Moines or were purchased directly from Maytag Dairy Farms.

Hy-Vee of Newton Manager Store Operations Jon Holland said the Maytag Blue Cheese on the shelves Saturday at the store has the lot number 150201.

The lot is packaged in four-ounce wedges, eight-ounce wedges, two-pound wheels, four-pound wheels and five-pound crumbles. It carries batch numbers 960020, 960037, 960040, 960041, 960049, 960053, 960054. The lot included 896 pounds of cheese.

The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship’s Dairy Products Control Bureau discovered the possible contamination during routine testing. As of Saturday, there have been no reported illnesses linked to the product.

Consumers who have purchased these products are urged not to consume those. Customers can call Maytag Dairy Farms at 800-247-2458 or 641-791-2010 to arrange for a refund and return of the product.

The Iowa Department of Public Health and the Food and Drug Administration said there have been no reported cases of listeria monocytogenes since the product was package in January 2016.

Listeria is a pathogen found in the environment. The very young, elderly and those who are immuno-compromised are especially susceptible by eating product contaminated with listeria.

More information can be found on the Centers for Disease Control website: www.cdc.gov/listeria.

Contact Jason W. Brooks at 641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or jbrooks@newtondailynews.com