Contaminated Dairy Products Are Rare in the State, Officials Report

Over the last 10 years, there have only been a handful of incidents involving contaminated dairy products, state officials say.

The most recent--before the Jalisco Mexican Products Inc. case--occurred in July, 1984, when inspectors found that raw-milk cheeses produced at a Bay Area dairy contained a bacterial toxin that can cause severe food poisoning. The problem was traced to milk supplies that were not kept cool enough to prevent the growth of the bacteria. Officials recalled no serious illnesses in that case. The plant recently resumed production, and state inspectors are monitoring it weekly.

In 1980, a hepatitis outbreak was traced to a worker in a Bay Area ice cream plant.

State Department of Health Services officials confirm that few food-borne illnesses have been traced to dairy products.

Between 1963 and the current cheese incident, the department has sought the recall of foods from grocery shelves only seven times, according to Stuart Richardson, chief of the department’s food and drug branch.

None of the recalls has involved a dairy product, Richardson said. (An exception is the periodic voluntary recall of raw milk from the Alta-Dena Dairy, when state officials find evidence of salmonella infection of the herds.)

Every year, state health officials compile a list of food- and water-borne disease outbreaks reported by county health officers, but the causes are rarely identified, according to department epidemiologist and statistician Florence Morrison.

Of 40 outbreaks reported to the state in 1984 by county health officers, only two appear to be connected to dairy products, Morrison said. In one case, 13 people suffered intestinal problems after eating vanilla ice cream, but the dairy product was never confirmed as the source of the disease. Another instance involved schoolchildren who consumed raw-milk products while on a visit to Alta-Dena Dairy.

Morrison said that there is no evidence that food-borne disease is on the rise.