Consider Bardwell Farm has reported Listeria contamination in its raw milk cheese.
Consider Bardwell Farm reported to state and federal authorities that it had found Listeria monocytogenes, a germ that can cause serious illness in pregnant women, newborns, older adults, and people with weakened immune systems, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The CDC said that about one in five people with the Listeria infection die. When it occurs during pregnancy, it can lead to miscarriage, stillbirth, or newborn death.
E.B. Flory, the dairy section chief at the state Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets said Oct. 7 that the contamination was found through routine testing and none of the contaminated cheese reached any market.
Consider Bardwell sells its raw cow and goat milk cheese at several stores in New York City, and at stores in Dorset and West Pawlet. Whole Foods markets issued its own recall notice for the company’s Dorset cheese for its stores in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Maine, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey. The FDA said the products were also distributed in California and Texas.
Consider Bardwell, which makes the cheese on its 300-acre farm in Vermont and New York, said in a statement that it was working to recall and account for all Dorset, Slyboro and Experience cheeses aged in the farm’s washed rind cave.