• DevelopingThree children die in Van Zandt County house fire; adult and child critically injured — 3 sources
  • New storyMotorcyclist dies in head-on collision with semi on U.S. 20 in LaPorte County
  • DevelopingMagnitude 7 earthquake reported in China; GDACS estimates 10,000 in MMI VII+ area — 2 sources
  • New storyCrash on Dixie Highway in Crestview Hills closes I-275 exit ramp
  • DevelopingNWS warns of severe thunderstorm with 60 mph gusts, large hail in parts of Arizona — 3 sources
  • DevelopingNWS warns of severe thunderstorm with 60 mph gusts, large hail in parts of Arizona — 2 sources
  • DevelopingMagnitude 7 earthquake reported in China; GDACS estimates 10,000 in MMI VII+ area — 1 source
  • New storyNWS warns of severe thunderstorm with 60 mph gusts, large hail in parts of Arizona
  • RenderingHurricane Utah flooding forces Gould Wash and WillowWind evacuations
  • New storyOne dead after crash into tree on Carl Baker Road in Starr, coroner says

Health · Raw-milk cheese recall

Eight hospitalized as Graziers raw-milk cheese is recalled nationwide

Thirteen illnesses have been reported, including three serious HUS cases. Four Graziers raw-milk cheese varieties are named, but investigators have not identified the specific contaminated product.

Aired Written 6 min read41 sourcesHeyDay News Desk · About usWatch report
Explore with HeyDex

Follow via RSS

Transcript · LOADING

Story trackerDay 7

1 report28 outlets41 sources2 videos

  • No dated events yet
  1. Update 1Eight hospitalized as Graziers raw-milk cheese is recalled nationwideYou are here

Eight of the 13 people reported ill in an E. coli outbreak linked to Graziers raw-milk cheese were hospitalized. Three developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, a potentially life-threatening complication. Those are patients within the same 13-person total—not additional cases. 1

Sierra Nevada Cheese Company has voluntarily recalled its Graziers raw-milk cheeses nationwide because investigators have not narrowed down which particular cheeses were implicated. The company said the products reached retail stores and food-service distributors. That makes this a refrigerator-and-freezer check for households and restaurants, not simply a removal from shop shelves. 2 8

The FDA’s instruction is unambiguous: “Do not eat, sell, or serve” the recalled cheeses. The company advised consumers to discard them or return them. Uncertainty about the specific contaminated product is the reason for the broad recall, not a reason to keep serving the cheese. 5 1

Key facts

  1. 13Reported illnesses 122
  2. 8Patients hospitalized 122
  3. 3Patients with hemolytic uremic syndrome 122

What to remove from kitchens

The FDA identifies four Graziers grass-fed raw-milk cheese varieties: medium cheddar, sharp cheddar, jalapeño jack and Monterey jack. The identified formats are 8-ounce and 16-ounce retail packages and 5-pound loaves for food-service customers or wholesalers. The available official product description does not establish every variety-and-size pairing. 5

Four varieties is the verified list—not ten distinct varieties, as headlines from EatingWell and AOL might suggest. Monterey jack is also the correct name; “Montgomery Jack,” used in one ABC News account, is erroneous. A further reference to 40-pound blocks in LexBlog’s September 29 coverage is not verified by the available official notice text. 3 6 2 5 37

A September 25 Natural Grocers withdrawal notice provides three useful identifiers, all for 8-ounce packages: raw-milk sharp cheddar, UPC 687652165075; raw-milk Monterey jack, UPC 687652164009; and raw-milk jalapeño jack, UPC 687652164030. These are retailer identifiers, not a complete FDA recall barcode list. A different UPC does not establish that a package is safe. 15

Secondary coverage describes all Graziers raw-milk cheese currently on the market as recalled, with no lot or date code to check. But the complete official all-lots or all-best-by-dates terms have not been independently verified. There is no verified lot-code shortcut here for identifying a safe package, nor a complete product identifier or distribution inventory. The named recall concerns raw-milk cheeses; it should not be expanded into a claim that every Sierra Nevada product is affected. An explicit exclusion of pasteurized products has not been verified either. 17 37 4 5

The dates describe different stages of the response. Natural Grocers’ withdrawal is dated September 25. The FDA-posted notice gives September 28, 2026, as the company announcement date and September 29 as the federal publication date. Medical Xpress reported a September 24 start to the recall, but that initiation date remains unverified. The later announcement dates do not disprove an earlier withdrawal; they do mean September 24 should not be presented as the verified public-announcement date. 15 4 12

What the illness figures establish

As of this October 2 review, the latest located reporting explicitly stating the totals is dated October 1: 13 illnesses, eight hospitalizations and three HUS cases. FINCHANNEL also reported no deaths. These accounts repeat earlier figures rather than establish an enlarged outbreak. Food Safety News had already reported 13 confirmed patients as of September 25. No newer official surveillance cutoff or subsequent patient outcome is established. A fresh publication date is not necessarily a fresh patient count. 1 22 9

HUS can damage blood vessels, become life-threatening and lead to kidney failure. But a possible consequence is not a documented diagnosis: the evidence does not establish kidney failure in any of these three patients. Their recovery and prognosis remain unknown. Likewise, “no deaths reported” in the October 1 account is not a guarantee about what happened afterward. 1 22

Young children account for a substantial share of the reported illnesses. A September 26 eFoodAlert account, attributing the information to CDC, says more than half were five years old and younger. That implies at least seven of the 13 by arithmetic, not an exact published count. It includes five-year-olds and cannot establish how many patients were strictly younger than five. The full age range and median age are unavailable. 21

Food Poison Journal’s September 26 headline names nine states with patients: California, Nevada, Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Oregon, Tennessee and Utah. That is a complete secondary-source list, but it has not been independently matched against an official state table, and individual state counts are unavailable. Those states describe reported patient locations—not the boundaries of the nationwide recall. 24 1

Reporting places the outbreak as extending back to early July 2026, but exact first and last illness-onset dates and a complete patient timeline have not been established. CDC’s general guidance describes bloody or watery diarrhea, stomach cramps that can be severe, vomiting and a low fever. Those are possible infection symptoms, not a clinical description of every patient in this outbreak. 21 27

A broad recall, an unresolved cause

The FDA identifies the outbreak organism as Escherichia coli O26:H11. The recall concerns possible contamination with Shiga toxin-producing E. coli. Reporting describes patients becoming infected after consuming Graziers raw-milk cheeses and investigators linking the products to the outbreak. That supports an outbreak link and precautionary recall—not a finding that every package was contaminated. 5 18 21 22

The detailed evidence needed to narrow the cause is not available: interview totals, the number of patients specifically reporting cheese consumption, supply-chain traceback findings, positive cheese or environmental tests, and genetic comparisons between patient and product bacteria. No particular variety, lot, production step or contamination source is established. Recalling broadly addresses that uncertainty; it does not resolve it.

No dated next announcement or end to the investigation is established. The consequential questions are whether additional patients emerge, how those hospitalized and those with HUS fare, and whether investigators can identify the contaminated cheese and its source. For kitchens, the immediate decision need not wait for those answers: recalled Graziers raw-milk cheeses should be removed from meals, sale and food service. 5

Sources for this report

ABC News, October 1 search-trends broadcast. 1

ABC News, nationwide cheese-recall report. 2

EatingWell, Graziers recall coverage. 3

FDA, company recall announcement. 4

FDA, September 2026 O26:H11 outbreak investigation. 5

AOL, nationwide cheese-recall coverage. 6

TODAY, recall and nine-state outbreak coverage. 7

Fox Reno, Northern Nevada Public Health refrigerator-and-freezer advice. 8

Food Safety News, initial outbreak reporting. 9

Food Poisoning News, illness and hospitalization reporting. 10

Food Poisoning Bulletin, Graziers recall report. 11

Medical Xpress, nationwide recall report. 12

CRBC News, four-variety recall coverage. 13

Georgia Department of Agriculture advisory, via PublicNow. 14

Natural Grocers product withdrawal, via PublicNow. 15

Totally the Bomb, product-identification coverage. 16

Source86, recall-scope coverage. 17

FDA recall republication, via PublicNow. 18

San Diego County News Center, raw-milk cheese advisory. 19

Monterey County recall republication, via PublicNow. 20

eFoodAlert, September 26 outbreak report. 21

FINCHANNEL, October 1 illness totals. 22

Qazinform, October 2 recall coverage. 23

Food Poison Journal, September 26 nine-state list. 24

International Business Times Singapore, consumer coverage. 25

GetRawMilk.com, Graziers recall coverage. 26

CDC, general E. coli symptoms. 27

CDC, general E. coli overview. 28

FDA, general E. coli information. 29

CDC, clinician guidance. 30

CDC, separate Raw Farm dairy outbreak—not Graziers evidence. 31

CDC, confirming foodborne-outbreak causes. 32

FDA, separate February 2024 raw-cheddar outbreak—not Graziers evidence. 33

DC Health, general E. coli fact sheet. 34

CDC, general food-poisoning symptoms. 35

Mayo Clinic, general E. coli information. 36

LexBlog, September 29 recall-scope coverage. 37

Quartz, Graziers recall coverage. 38

Florida Department of Agriculture recall republication, via PublicNow. 39

EIN Presswire, raw-milk cheese safety alert. 40

HRHS News, nationwide recall coverage. 41

As aired 17 lines
  1. An E. coli outbreak linked to Graziers raw-milk cheese has hospitalized eight people.
  2. Sierra Nevada Cheese Company has voluntarily recalled its Graziers raw-milk cheeses nationwide. Thirteen people became ill, including three who developed a potentially life-threatening complication, and the cheeses reached both retail stores and food-service distributors.
  3. Which cheeses must come out of kitchens, and what has the investigation actually established?
  4. Three patients developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS. That condition can damage blood vessels, become life-threatening and lead to kidney failure. But kidney failure has not been established in these three patients, and their subsequent recovery or prognosis is unknown. The eight hospitalizations and three HUS cases fall within the thirteen illnesses; they are not additional patients to add to the total. No deaths were reported with those figures, but that does not establish what happened afterward.
  5. The thirteen-patient total dates back to September 25, 2026, and eight hospitalizations were already known in late September. The figures repeated on October 1 do not establish an enlarged outbreak. No newer official surveillance cutoff, increase in cases or subsequent death has been established; a later publication date does not itself mean patients were counted more recently.
  6. More than half of the thirteen patients were five years old or younger. That means at least seven by arithmetic, not an exact published count. Five-year-olds are included: the number strictly younger than five is unknown, along with the patients’ full age range and median age. The outbreak extends back to early July 2026, but exact earliest and latest illness-onset dates and a complete patient timeline remain unavailable.
  7. Nine states have reported patients: California, Nevada, Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Oregon, Tennessee and Utah. That complete list fills the missing name in an earlier incomplete account, but it has not been independently matched against an official state-by-state table. Individual state case counts are unavailable. Those nine states describe patient locations, not the boundaries of the recall: distribution was nationwide.
  8. Four cheese varieties are identified in the official product list: Graziers grass-fed raw-milk medium cheddar, sharp cheddar, jalapeño jack and Monterey jack. Ten distinct varieties have not been verified. Monterey jack is the correct name; Montgomery Jack is an error. The identified formats are eight-ounce and sixteen-ounce retail packages, plus five-pound loaves for food-service customers or wholesalers. The complete pairing of each variety with each size is not established. A forty-pound block format is also not verified in the available official notice text.
  9. Three eight-ounce products have usable retail UPC identifiers, but they are not a complete recall list. They cover sharp cheddar, Monterey jack and jalapeño jack, not every named variety, the sixteen-ounce packages or the wholesale loaves. A different barcode is not proof that a package is safe.
  10. A retailer withdrew products on September 25, before the dated public company announcement. The official notice identifies September 28 as the company announcement date and September 29 as the federal publication date. A September 24 start to the voluntary recall remains unverified. These are different milestones: announcement and publication dates do not disprove an earlier product withdrawal, but September 24 should not be presented as the verified date of the published announcement.
  11. The broad recall covers Graziers raw-milk cheeses because investigators have not narrowed down the particular cheeses implicated. But the complete official recall terms are not available for independent verification. An explicit all-lots or all-best-by-dates provision has not been verified, and no complete lot list, best-by-date list, UPC matrix, distribution inventory or company contact telephone is established. There is no verified lot or date-code shortcut for identifying a safe package.
  12. The identified recall concerns the named raw-milk cheeses, not a verified recall of every product Sierra Nevada Cheese Company makes. An explicit statement excluding its pasteurized products has not been verified either.
  13. Investigators linked Graziers raw-milk cheeses to the outbreak, but the responsible variety and contamination source remain unresolved. The identified organism is E. coli O26:H11, and the recall concerns possible contamination with Shiga toxin-producing E. coli. Patients became infected after consuming Graziers cheeses. That supports an outbreak link and a precautionary recall, not a finding that every package was contaminated.
  14. The detailed evidence needed to narrow the cause is not available: how many patients were interviewed, how many specifically reported eating the cheese, the supply-chain traceback results, positive cheese or environmental tests, and genetic comparisons between patient and product bacteria. No particular lot, production step or contamination source has been established. Recalling broadly addresses that uncertainty; it does not resolve it.
  15. Recalled cheese should not be eaten, sold or served. Consumers should discard it or return it. Households and restaurants should check refrigerators and freezers, not just store shelves. A recalled item may be a packaged block at home or a larger loaf already held by a food-service business.
  16. E. coli infection can cause bloody or watery diarrhea and stomach cramps that can be severe; some people also develop vomiting or a low fever. These are general symptoms, not a documented description of every patient in this outbreak. Complete incubation timing, specific medical-care thresholds, an HUS emergency-warning checklist and exact cleaning or sanitizing instructions are not established by the available advisory text.
  17. The immediate answer is to remove the recalled Graziers raw-milk cheeses from meals, retail sale and food service. The investigation has established an outbreak link, but not which specific cheese or contamination source was responsible. Whether additional patients are identified, and how the hospitalized patients and those with HUS fare, remain unknown. No dated next announcement or end to the investigation has been established.

Sources

41 sources28 outlets2 videos

Source map

Follow the evidence behind this report. The map shows its connections; the links below open the sources cited in this article.

Source map loads as you read.

Explore the full newsroom map ↗

Revision log

  1. r1First published.