New York dairy recalls all cheddar cheese for Listeria risk, its second recall in a month

Family Farmstead Dairy, a small cheesemaker in Worcester, New York, has recalled every current lot of its raw cheddar cheese from retail stores in 12 states because of possible contamination with Listeria monocytogenes, according to a notice posted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday. It is the company's second recall in less than a month.

The new recall covers all packages of Family Farmstead Raw Mild Cheddar and Raw Sharp Cheddar, sold in 8-ounce plastic-wrapped blocks, bearing lot codes and best-by dates of Oct. 16, 2027, or earlier. Because the cheese is aged, that date range effectively captures the company's full inventory currently on shelves. The product was shipped to retail stores in New York, New Jersey, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee, the FDA notice says, a distribution footprint also reported by Food Poison Journal and Yahoo News. No illnesses have been reported in connection with either recall, the company said.

A second recall in 26 days

The Listeria recall follows an earlier one, announced Oct. 15, that covered a single lot of Family Farmstead Raw Mild Cheddar after a sample tested in Maryland turned up Shiga toxin-producing E. coli. The company's first notice named the strain as E. coli O157:H7 and limited distribution to two states; a corrected notice later identified two different, non-O157 strains, O26:H11 and O45:H2, and widened the known distribution to seven states, according to Contagion Live. That recall, too, was not linked to any reported illnesses.

Twenty-six days later, the company pulled its entire cheddar line over a different pathogen. Family Farmstead has not said publicly whether the Listeria finding came from its own testing, a retail sample or a government inspection, and the FDA notice does not specify. Like most food recalls, both actions were voluntary steps taken by the company rather than mandatory orders; the FDA generally relies on manufacturers to initiate a recall once contamination is suspected or confirmed, then publishes the firm's own notice. In its October statement, which accompanied the first recall, the company said:

"Product quality is an utmost priority here at Family Farmstead... we are committed to identifying the cause of this issue and taking all necessary corrective actions."

Why Listeria concerns food-safety officials

Listeria monocytogenes is a bacterium that survives and can even multiply under refrigeration, which makes it harder to control in soft and aged dairy products than many other foodborne pathogens. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that listeriosis causes roughly 1,250 illnesses and about 172 deaths in the United States each year, ranking it among the leading causes of death from foodborne illness. Nearly everyone diagnosed with the infection is hospitalized, and the case-fatality rate runs close to 20 percent, far higher than for more common pathogens such as Salmonella or norovirus.

The FDA lists any cheese made with unpasteurized milk among the foods that pregnant women, newborns, adults 65 and older, and people with weakened immune systems should avoid entirely, regardless of how the cheese has been aged. Pregnant women are roughly 10 times more likely than the general population to become infected, and the agency warns that an infection can cause miscarriage, stillbirth or severe illness in a newborn even when the mother's own symptoms are mild or absent. Symptoms in other adults can include fever, muscle aches, headache, stiff neck, confusion and loss of balance, sometimes following diarrhea, and can take substantially longer than most foodborne illnesses to appear after exposure.

Federal rules permit cheese made from raw milk to be sold domestically only if it has been cured for at least 60 days, a safeguard intended to let naturally occurring bacteria die off before the product reaches consumers. Food-safety researchers have long noted that the rule offers no protection against contamination introduced after that aging period, during packaging, slicing or storage — precisely the stage at which Listeria most often turns up in retail dairy products. Raw-milk cheese has drawn repeated regulatory attention this year; a separate, unrelated E. coli outbreak traced to a different raw-milk cheesemaker, Sierra Nevada Cheese Company, sickened more than a dozen people in several states earlier this fall, though no link between that outbreak and either Family Farmstead recall has been reported.

Who is affected, and what to do

Anyone who bought Family Farmstead raw cheddar recently in the 12 affected states should check the best-by date on the package. Cheese dated Oct. 16, 2027, or earlier should not be eaten, even if it has already been opened or partially used, the company said. Consumers are advised to return it to the place of purchase for a refund or to discard it in a sealed container, and to wash any knives, cutting boards or refrigerator surfaces the cheese may have touched. Family Farmstead Dairy can be reached at (607) 397-4044, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., or at [email protected].

Because listeriosis symptoms can take up to two months or longer to appear, retailers in the affected states and households that purchased the cheese earlier this fall may not immediately connect a later illness to the product. Public health officials recommend that anyone who ate the recalled cheese and later develops a fever or flu-like symptoms, particularly if pregnant, tell a doctor what they ate.

What's next

The FDA notice does not indicate whether the agency has opened a broader investigation into the Worcester facility or whether any samples from the plant environment, rather than finished cheese, tested positive. Family Farmstead Dairy has said it is working to identify the cause of its contamination problems, but it has not announced a timetable for resuming sales or said whether it will suspend production while it does so. The FDA and state agriculture officials in the affected states typically continue sampling retail products connected to an active recall for several weeks, and any update on further illnesses or product testing would likely come through an amended FDA notice. For now, the agency's listing for Family Farmstead carries the same status as its October entry: ongoing, with no illnesses confirmed.