Homemade queso fresco , a Mexican-style soft cheese, may have caused at least seven salmonella infections recently in the Salt Lake Valley, public health officials said Thursday.
The cases are linked to one person in Kearns who made the fresh cheese with raw milk from a neighborhood cow, said Larry Lewis, spokesman for the State Department of Agriculture.
Officials believe the contaminated cheese was sold or given away to friends and neighbors, but not produced or sold commercially.
"We believe the contamination came from the raw milk," Lewis said. However, the cheese maker would not tell officials where he obtained the milk.
The salmonella cases came to the attention of the Salt Lake Valley Health Department after people became sick with diarrhea, fever and stomach pains. When a sample of the cheese was tested at the state's Public Health Laboratory, the bacteria officially known as "Salmonella Newport" was found.
The Newport infections involve seven people, most of whom live in the Salt Lake Valley, said Theron Jeppson with Utah Department of Heath. But it may be more widespread, because health officials have seen sporadic cases of salmonella linked to queso fresco.
Besides making people sick, the amateur cheese maker may also have violated state food-handling requirements. "It is against the law to sell privately produced products door-to-door, if they are potentially hazardous," stated Marilee
Poulson, an epidemiologist with the Utah Department of Health.
While the investigation is focused on people infected with salmonella, other bacteria -- including listeria, campylobacter, E. coli, and Brucella -- also can be spread through products that contain contaminated unpasteurized milk.
In fact, public health officials are currently investigating another cluster of illnesses involving the campylobacter bacteria. Those illnesses may also be associated with contaminated cheese made with unpasteurized milk.
Consumers should have less concerns about commercial cheeses made with unpasteurized milk that have been purchased from grocery stores and specialty markets, said Utah cheese expert Steven Rosenberg, owner of Liberty Heights Fresh, as federal law requires that these "raw-milk" cheeses be aged at least 60 days. "Pathogens cannot survive the aging process," Rosenberg said.
Salmonella bacteria are commonly transmitted by eating or drinking contaminated food or water. Salmonellosis can also be spread by direct contact with an infected person or animal. Symptoms, which include headache, stomach pain, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and almost always fever, can last between three and seven days.
The bacteria is especially dangerous for children, the elderly, pregnant women and those with compromised immune systems. To see more of The Salt Lake Tribune, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sltrib.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Salt Lake Tribune Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
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