Cheese Recall Sweeps Across 5 States: Just Throw It Out

More product recalls citing fear of a listeria outbreak have been announced.

According to a notice posted Friday by the Food and Drug Administration, Abbey Specialty Foods is recalling two cheese products while citing the potential for Listeria monocytogenes.

The company is recalling its Wicklow Gold Cheddar Nettle & Chive 5.2 oz product and its Wicklow Gold Cheddar Tomato & Herb 5.2 oz product. The products were sold in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Colorado.

Abbey Specialty Foods said it was notified by Wicklow Farmhouse Cheese LTD of the potential contamination.

Consumers are urged to return the products where they were purchased to get a refund, or else throw out what has not been eaten.

The notice said that no one has been reported sick from eating the items to date.

The notice added that both products have a “sell by” date of Jun 2, 2025. The batch number for Wicklow Gold Cheddar Nettle & Chive is 24192; the batch number for Wicklow Gold Cheddar Tomato & Herb is 24175.

Recalls due to concerns of listeria are not uncommon. On Dec. 27, the FDA notified consumers that Braga Fresh was recalling 12oz bags of Marketside Broccoli Florets with a “use by” date of Dec. 10, 2024.

The alert noted that the recall followed “random sampling by Texas Health & Human Services from a Texas store location where one of multiple samples yielded a positive test result.”

The recall covered Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, listeria is the third leading cause of death due to foodborne illness in the United States. Of the roughly 1,600 people sickened each year, about 260 die, according to the CDC.

Listeria is an intestinal disease that hits older people, pregnant women, and people with weakened immune systems the hardest.

Increased listeria outbreaks are a product of the times, Dr. Céline Gounder, editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News, said in comments to CBS News.

“Every step of food processing, there’s the opportunity for contamination. That’s number one. Consumers want ready-to-eat food, so of course, they’re more processed as a result,” she said.

“We have better tests. So it used to be we might not have been aware or known what made you sick. Now we can actually test, detect and tell you what made you sick,” she said.

The website Crisis 24 noted that “the threat posed by Listeria associated with ready-to-eat (RTE) foods is well known to the industry.”

“While the regulatory agencies have guidance in place to reduce the risk of Listeria contamination and resulting human illness, obviously there are too many instances where companies and possibly the regulatory guidance have failed,” it reported.

“It is well known that modern food production environments, often, wet, cold, and with many places that can harbor Listeria monocytogenese, represent a significant risk to post processing contamination,” the site reported.

“Often food processing facilities were originally constructed for other purposes or without ‘modern’ considerations for hygienic design. Wall and floor interfaces, drain design, floor coatings can contribute to the harborage of Listeria,” the site said.

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