Cheese Probe Focuses on Milk, Processing : Investigators Scour Jalisco’s Plant in Artesia as Product Recall is Expanded to 13 Other States

As the recall of Jalisco-made cheeses was expanded Friday throughout California and to 13 other states as far away as New York, inspectors scouring the company’s Artesia plant focused on raw milk and the pasteurizing process as possible sources of the bacteria that has killed 29 people in Southern California.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials, meeting in Washington, called the food contamination “an acute life-threatening situation” and pledged to visit every retail outlet in the nation carrying Jalisco Mexican Products Inc. brands to make certain the cheeses are pulled from the shelves.

Company officials, saying news of the deaths left them “shocked and sick at heart,” announced they have voluntarily recalled from market shelves their entire product line--28 varieties of cheese under four brand names--until the source of the contamination is identified and “we can guarantee to the public that our cheese is safe.”

Primary Suppliers

The primary suppliers of milk to the factory are the Alta-Dena Dairy in the City of Industry and the Fred Deboer Dairy in Ontario. The Alta-Dena Dairy is the prime supplier, authorities said. Officials from both dairies denied that their facilities in any way contributed to the contamination.

Besides the 29 dead, 59 others, mostly babies and pregnant women in Los Angeles and Orange counties, have been stricken with the bacteria Listeria monocytogenes. Most of the victims are Latinos. Twenty-two of those who died were from Los Angeles County and seven were from Orange County.

Health officials had originally put the death toll at 28, but after rechecking their records Friday, found an earlier death that should have been included.

Although the last reported case of Listeriosis occurred June 8 in Los Angeles County, health officials say they suspect mild cases may be going unreported. Physicians are not required to report cases of Listeriosis to health authorities.

On Friday, the hot line at the Los Angeles County Medical Assn.’s poison information center was receiving more than a call a minute from concerned consumers of the cheese.

The emergency room at Women’s Hospital of the County-USC Medical Center also was visited by extraordinary numbers of worried pregnant women. Some doctors there were disgruntled that county health officials had not notified them before announcing the outbreak Thursday. Advance notice, they said, would have helped them prepare for the onslaught.

For the first time Friday, the disease was reported outside California when a 2-year-old girl was admitted to a Pueblo, Colo., hospital with abdominal pain, high fever and other symptoms produced by the bacteria. The child, who had eaten Jalisco cheese brought home by relatives who had visited California, was taken to the hospital after her parents saw televised reports of the tainted food.

Jalisco Mexico Products sells 500,000 pounds of cheese each month, mostly in California and Arizona. Its products also are marketed in Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio and Tennessee.

‘Grab Sample’

Los Angeles County health officials said the contamination was discovered in two types of Jalisco cheeses, queso fresco and cotija, after a “grab sample” was taken from shelves in 20 Los Angeles markets. The samples were sent to the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta last Friday for study, and the county was notified Thursday that the cheese was infected with the bacteria.

Jalisco produces 28 varieties of cheese under four labels, including Jalisco, Jiminez, La Vaquita and Guadalajara.

Los Angeles County health officials say they cannot guarantee those other varieties are free from the bacteria. Additional testing is taking place and other samples have been sent to Atlanta.

“I can’t say other cheeses (from Jalisco Products) are completely free,” said Dr. Shirley Fannin, associate director of communicable disease control for Los Angeles County. “That’s unknown to us.”

She said the expiration dates on the two types of cheese found to contain the bacteria were June 26 and Aug. 9. Processing usually occurs 90 days before the date stamped on the product.

Expiration Dates

Because of the length of time between the expiration dates, Fannin said, “Our inference has to be (that) it’s not a one-batch problem.”

Investigators searching the factory Friday focused their probe on the raw milk used in making the various kinds of cheese and the pasteurization process used to kill bacteria in the milk. Listeria is often present in the viscera of dairy animals and can be transferred to milk during the milking process, authorities say.

“We’re not sure where it (the contamination) is coming from,” said Dick Reed, Southern California administrator for the state Food and Agriculture Department’s milk and dairy foods controls division. “We’re going to take the whole plant and completely dissemble it.”

All of the milk used to make the Jalisco Products cheese arrives at the factory in its raw, unpasteurized form, health officials said. The milk is pasteurized during the cheese-making process to rid it of bacteria. “We know that (some of) the milk was delivered by Alta-Dena trucks and we are trying to learn what herds it came from,” said Dr. Michael Linnan, an epidemiologist with the federal Centers for Disease Control.

Alta-Dena owner Harold Stueve said his dairy buys milk from almost two dozen dairy farms in Southern California. Alta-Dena also has five herds of its own, he said.

Company attorney Raymond Novell maintains that his firm’s products are not contaminated and that no one has become ill from drinking Alta-Dena raw milk.

“This has nothing to do with us,” Stueve said.

Subject of Controversy

Alta-Dena has been embroiled in controversy since the 1960s with a variety of state and federal health agencies, which have maintained that the unpasteurized milk that the dairy markets can carry salmonella dublin bacteria. The organism can cause diarrhea, nausea and fever in able-bodied people and can prove fatal if it infects infants, the elderly and others with impaired immune systems.

Alta-Dena milk products have been recalled more than 20 times in the last 20 years because routine government laboratory tests have found the salmonella bacteria.

Alta-Dena is currently involved in a number of lawsuits. The company is seeking $110 million from a San Francisco physician for allegedly making libelous statements at a congressional hearing. The dairy also is the defendant in three wrongful-death suits, brought by relatives in Los Angeles and San Diego counties.

Test samples of the raw milk used by the Jalisco factory are being taken to determine if the bacteria is present, investigators said. Linnan said if the raw milk was contaminated with an unusually large number of Listeria organisms, a few hardy ones could have survived the pasteurization process at the plant to make their way into the cheese.

Processing Machine

Should the milk prove to be pure, Linnan suggested that the contamination could also be the result of a breakdown of a processing machine in the plant.

Tests for Listeria are not conducted as part of routine inspections of cheese and dairy factories and similar facilities, state dairy officials said

“We do not check for that bacteria” because the chances of becoming ill are so slim, said Adolf Leibe, a state dairy foods inspector. “We didn’t even look for this bacteria until we had problems in the hospitals.”

Although the Listeria bacteria is common, appearing in a wide variety of raw meats, fruits, vegetables, dairy products and in the soil itself, the disease in humans is rare, attacking only the most vulnerable--mostly young babies, older people, pregnant women and their unborn babies.

“It does not happen in (most healthy) people,” said Dr. Laurene Mascola, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control. “It’s everywhere, but for reasons unknown it doesn’t happen all that much. It’s usually the wrong situation at the wrong time with the right group of (vulnerable) people.”

Passed Inspections

The Jalisco facility has passed all recent inspections by state health investigators, the most recent of which was within the last two weeks.

“We were astounded we had a problem there,” Reed said. “Bacteria we don’t see. That’s what makes it hard.”

Jalisco Products President Gary McPherson said the company is cooperating fully with authorities but said he is still unsure where the bacteria originated.

In combing through the plant, investigators will take environmental samplings of air, water and from the surface of the equipment. They will take samples of all products and check the workings of all the equipment, including the pasteurizing machinery. Cheese production will also be simulated, using water instead of milk, to further test all equipment.

Times staff writers Marlene Cimons in Washington, Mark Gladstone in Sacramento and Harry Nelson and Robert Welkos in Los Angeles contributed to this story.

EXPANDING THE CHEESE RECALL

Health official initially linked two Jalisco brand cheeses, Queso Fresco and Cotija, to the bacterial infection responsible for the deaths of 29 people in Los Angeles and Orange counties. Jalisco Mexican Products on Friday said that it was recalling its entire line of dairy porducts, marketed under four brand names. This is the expanded list:

Label Product Jalisco Adovera Suelto Jalisco Adoveras Jalisco Asadero Horn Jalisco Asaderos Jalisco Baby Jack Horn Jalisco Cotija Jalisco Cotija Fresco Jalisco Cotija Seco Jalisco Cotija Wedge Jalisco Cotija Wheel Jalisco Crema Jalisco Enchilado Jalisco Enchilados Jalisco Jack Wheel Jalisco Jalapeno Jalisco Jocoque Jalisco Oaxaca Horn Jalisco Oxaca Jalisco Panela Jalisco Queso Chihuahua Jalisco Queso Fresco Jalisco Queso Fresco Blanco Jalisco Queso Fundido Jalisco Requeson Jalisco Requeson Suelto Jiminez Asadero Jiminez Cotija Jiminez Jalapeno Jiminez Queso Fresco La Vaquita Asadero La Vaquita Baby Jack La Vaquita Enchilado La Vaquita Jalapeno La Vaquita Panela La Vaquita Queso Fresco Guadalajara Asadero Guadalajara Cotija Guadalajara Cotija Seco Guadalajara Crema Mexicana Guadalajara Enchilado Guadalajara Jalapeno Guadalajara Jocoque Guadalajara Panela Guadalajara Queso Fresco