Federal regulators introduced Sunday that an E. coli outbreak that contaminated at the very least seven folks in three states have been traced to a uncooked cheddar cheese product.
Lots of the affected people are kids, ages 3 or youthful, throughout California, Texas and Florida, in keeping with the US Meals and Drug Administration (FDA).
Of the seven reported instances, 5 had been in California, one in Florida and one other in Texas.
“The FDA and CDC, in collaboration with state and native companions, are investigating a multistate outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 infections,” the FDA mentioned.
“As of March 14, 2026, a complete of seven confirmed infections have been reported from three states.”
Officers mentioned investigators have traced the outbreak to California producer RAW FARM, a family-owned firm acknowledged because the nation’s largest producer of uncooked dairy merchandise.
The FDA famous that RAW FARM declined to problem a voluntary recall of its shredded uncooked cheddar cheese product regardless of the company’s suggestion.
In response, the dairy farm denied the allegations on its social media web page Monday, claiming that the well being company made “false allegations” towards the model and that no assessments have confirmed a constructive match for the E. coli pressure.
“We disagree 100% with the allegations made by the FDA and CDC,” the corporate mentioned.
“All of our merchandise have been CONFIRMED to be detrimental for all dangerous micro organism, together with Ecoli 0157-H7. FDA has discovered NO Uncooked Farm merchandise to be examined constructive for Ecoli within the market.”
“Inaccurate statements made by the FDA and CDC linking our model to an outbreak is egregious and excessive harassment in direction of our model,” it added.
The FDA confirmed that no RAW FARM–model cheddar cheese merchandise have but examined constructive for E. coli, however mentioned state companions have begun accumulating product samples.
They added that investigators had been in a position to monitor the infections utilizing epidemiological knowledge, a scientific methodology that analyzes the distribution, patterns, and causes of health-related occasions.
“Epidemiologic proof signifies that RAW FARM-brand uncooked cheddar cheese merchandise made by RAW FARM, LLC are the doubtless supply of this outbreak,” the company mentioned.
Of the three people who had been interviewed, all reported consuming RAW FARM–model cheese, federal regulators mentioned, including that native officers are working to collect extra info for the opposite 4 instances.
