Recent Recall News on Shredded Cheese - Lack of Investigation by Reporters Creates Confusion

Plastered over the news over the past few days is a recall of shredded cheese due to metal contamination.   However, the recall occurred two months ago according to the FDA Enforcement Notice.  On top of that, the recall was not publicly issued by FDA as a Recall Notice because, in most likelihood, the item did not get distributed to the consumer level or it was not viewed as a significant enough of an issue.   However, looking at the reported news articles, you would think that this is a major issue happening right now.  It is highly unlikely that any of this product is available at store level.  (If it is, then FDA should have issued a public notice back in October.)

The problem is that reporters are going into the FDA Enforcement reports and writing up a news story without doing any investigation.   Certainly, the reason the news article was written now, two months after the action was taken, is that FDA took a long time to classify and publish this information on the FDA Enforcement webpage. 

Another issue is that one reporter’s news story leads to the cascade effect with other news outlets just reissuing the same news story.

In the end, reporting like this creates confusion for the consumer.

USA TODAY
Shredded cheeses sold at Walmart, Target recalled. See affected items.
Mary Walrath-Holdridge
Dec. 3, 2025Updated Dec. 4, 2025, 9:40 a.m. ET
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/food/2025/12/03/shredded-cheese-recall-walmart-target-aldi/87584984007/

ABC News
Shredded cheese sold in dozens of states recalled due to potential for metal fragment contamination
The Food and Drug Administration says that there is a recall for more than 260,000 cases of shredded cheese sold in 31 states and Puerto Rico because of potential metal fragment contamination
ByMICHELLE CHAPMAN AP business writer
December 3, 2025, 12:19 PM
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/shredded-cheese-sold-dozens-states-recalled-due-potential-128079839

LA Times
1.5 million bags of shredded cheese have been recalled. Check your fridge for these brands
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-12-03/massive-shredded-cheese-recall-check-your-fridge-for-these-brands

NY Times
F.D.A. Orders Recall of More than 1.5 Million Bags of Shredded Cheese
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/us/cheese-recall.html

NPR
Check your cheese: Shredded and grated varieties are recalled nationwide
December 3, 20251:47 PM ET
By Rachel Treisman
https://www.npr.org/2025/12/03/nx-s1-5630116/shredded-cheese-recall-pecorino-romano

FDA Enforcement Report

https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/ires/?Event=97827