Raw-milk cheese recall joins standing foodborne watch
Federal boards still list active multistate foodborne probes. A new E. coli recall covers Sierra Nevada Graziers raw-milk cheeses. A separate Salmonella outbreak tied to broccoli sprouts is up to 32 cases in six states.
Federal food-safety boards still show active multistate investigations. On Sept. 25 the Food and Drug Administration posted an E. coli O26:H11 advisory linked to Sierra Nevada Graziers grass-fed raw-milk cheeses. A day earlier, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated a separate Salmonella Bovismorbificans outbreak tied to recalled broccoli sprouts.
In the cheese file, FDA and CDC report 13 illnesses in nine states — California, Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Tennessee, and Utah — with eight hospitalizations and three cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome. No deaths are listed. All nine people interviewed said they ate Sierra Nevada Graziers raw-milk cheese. Last illness onset on the board is Aug. 26; distribution is nationwide.
On Sept. 24, FDA contacted Sierra Nevada Cheese Company and recommended a recall. The firm agreed the same day and pulled all Graziers raw-milk cheeses: medium cheddar, sharp cheddar, jalapeño jack, and Monterey jack in 8-ounce and 16-ounce retail packs, plus 5-pound food-service loaves. Shoppers and restaurants are told not to eat, sell, or serve the recalled cheeses and to return them for a refund while FDA keeps looking for the contamination source.
Separately, the broccoli-sprouts outbreak now stands at 32 illnesses in six states — Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, Oregon, Utah, and Washington — with three hospitalizations and no deaths, according to the Sept. 24 CDC and FDA updates. Illnesses began between July 7 and Sept. 3. Of 27 people interviewed, 26 reported eating sprouts or microgreens. CIDRAP noted the same jump of ten newly counted cases.
Evergreen Fresh Sprouts, LLC, of Moyie Springs, Idaho, recalled packaged broccoli sprouts sold in Idaho, Montana, and Washington with expiration dates of Sept. 7, 9, 11, 14, and 16. Washington samples from a store and a sick person's home matched the outbreak strain by whole-genome sequencing. FDA says those lots should be past expiration and off shelves, but anyone who still has them should discard or return the product and clean surfaces it touched. Officials say that cluster is not related to a separate active probe of alfalfa sprouts distributed by Everything Sprouts, LLC, of Minneapolis, after a Sept. 23 seed recall by Berlin Seeds of Millersburg, Ohio.
FDA's CORE table also lists other open files with unnamed products, including Listeria and E. coli O157:H7 clusters, plus an ongoing Salmonella Javiana advisory on jalapeño peppers. Several summer Cyclospora outbreak events are marked ended even as some agency investigations remain active. Raw-milk cheese and sprouts remain classic enteric risk vehicles: unpasteurized dairy can carry pathogenic E. coli, and sprouted seeds grow in conditions that favor Salmonella if seed or water is contaminated.
Anyone who ate recalled Graziers cheeses or Evergreen broccoli sprouts and develops bloody diarrhea, high fever, or dehydration should contact a clinician and their local health department. Current product advice is on the FDA and CDC outbreak pages.
Where outlets agree CDC, FDA, and CIDRAP agree that Evergreen Fresh Sprouts broccoli sprouts are linked to a multistate Salmonella Bovismorbificans outbreak now at 32 illnesses in six states with a recall, and that Sierra Nevada Graziers raw-milk cheeses are under a new E. coli O26:H11 advisory with a company-wide Graziers recall after all interviewed patients reported eating that cheese.
Where they differ FDA's CORE investigations table keeps several parallel active files in view — including unnamed Listeria and E. coli O157:H7 clusters and the separate alfalfa-sprouts probe — while CDC and CIDRAP public updates this week put the named broccoli-sprouts case climb and the raw-milk cheese recall in the foreground for shoppers.