CT Health Officials Identify Contaminated Cheese Brand

CONNECTICUT — The state Department of Public Health has identified the brand El Abuelito Queso Fresco as the contaminated cheese that has hospitalized one Connecticut resident.

The DPH is now warning consumers, restaurants, and retailers in Connecticut not to eat, serve, or sell the brand until further notice. Laboratory tests detected Listeria monocytogenes in samples collected from a Connecticut retail food store last week.

The samples were collected as part of an ongoing investigation into a multi-state outbreak of listeriosis. Testing is continuing to determine the source of the outbreak.

Immune-compromised individuals and others at high risk for infection, such as pregnant women, young children, and the elderly, should avoid all Hispanic fresh and soft cheeses, according to the DPH advisory.

The product that tested positive for Listeria originates from El Abuelito, a cheese manufacturer in Paterson, NJ, and is sold as a fresh 10-ounce item packaged in a plastic container with a sticker with a lot number of A027 and a date of February 26, 2021. It is not known if other lot numbers of this product are contaminated.

Read More: Bad Cheese: State Health Officials Warn Of Listeria Outbreak

DPH is urging residents, retailers and food service establishments to check any queso fresco cheese they may have in their refrigerators to determine if it is the same product found to be contaminated with Listeria. The cheese should be discarded immediately. Restaurants and retailers that serve or sell other brands of Hispanic-style fresh and soft cheeses should follow the US Food and Drug Administration's safe handling and cleaning advice, the DPH advises.

Listeria monocytogenes is an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, pregnant women and others with weakened immune systems. Although healthy people may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, Listeria infection can cause miscarriages, stillbirths and fetal infection among pregnant women.