These cheeses were sold in three Whole Foods Market stores: West Hartford Center and Glastonbury, Connecticut; and Hadley, Massachusetts. The cheese is packaged in plastic labeled with a Whole Foods scale label and sold as random weight size retail packages in the cheese department.
This recall was issued as a result of contamination found during a routine regulatory sampling. The FDA, the Missouri Milk Board and Morningland Dairy are investigating the source of the contamination.
Consumption of food contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Although healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, Listeria infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women. Staphylococcus aureus is a bacteria that usually causes rapid food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, retching, abdominal cramping and prostration. In more severe cases, headache, muscle cramping and transient changes in blood pressure and pulse may occur.