Milk Caused Cacique Cheese Bacteria, Health Officer Says

California health director Kenneth W. Kizer said Wednesday that unpasteurized milk was responsible for contaminating Mexican-style cheese produced by the Cacique Cheese Co., latest target of a state-ordered recall.

Kizer’s comments at a Sacramento news conference conflicted with those of Gilbert DeCardenas, president of Cacique. The Cacique executive told the state Department of Food and Agriculture earlier this week that no unpasteurized milk was added to the company’s products, according to Hans Van Nes, the agency’s deputy director.

A statement released by a public relations firm on behalf of Cacique said the cheese manufacturer, headquartered in the City of Industry, is cooperating with state authorities, but the statement did not address the pasteurization issue.

Cacique, the largest Southern California manufacturer of soft unripened cheese, produces 16 brands, all of which were ordered recalled Tuesday when state inspectors found cheese contaminated with potentially deadly bacteria, Listeria monocytogenes . Cacique has since halted production.

Asserting that the bacteria discovered in Cacique products “came from unpasteurized milk,” Kizer told reporters that his inspectors are not yet sure how it occurred.

“As to how that happened, whether it’s a technical problem with equipment or whether it was some other process that led to the unpasteurized milk getting in there, I don’t know the answer to that,” Kizer said. State officials are continuing their investigation.

Los Angeles county health officials have attributed 36 recent deaths to Listeria monocytogenes , including one announced on Wednesday. Fifty-nine such deaths have been reported statewide.

The current recall is the second one involving Cacique and the third since June, when Listeria monocytogenes was traced to Mexican-style cheeses produced by Jalisco Mexican Products Inc. of Artesia.

Jalisco voluntarily shut down its plant June 13. Two weeks later, state officials charged that Cacique had not properly pasteurized its cheese. Cacique challenged the state’s test results but voluntarily recalled some of its products. On Tuesday, state officials ordered a second recall of all Cacique Mexican-style cheese manufactured before July 1, when state inspectors were placed in the company’s plant.

Inspections Started

On the basis of the recall, Los Angeles county health officials on Wednesday began inspecting stores and restaurants to make sure that they are complying with the Cacique recall. The county Department of Health Services sent out notices in Spanish and English to food outlets, doctors, hospitals and nursing homes warning against using products produced by the company.

Infants, pregnant women and the elderly are most seriously affected by the bacteria.

The Jalisco bacteria has been identified by health officials as Listeria Type 4b. Robert C. Gates, director of the county Department of Health Services, said in a memo to Los Angeles County Supervisors that a cluster of Listeria Type 1b has been identified by physicians at County-USC Medical Center.

The new cluster, detected on July 5, is blamed for 18 cases of illness, from which “there have been six deaths,” Gates said in the memo released Wednesday by Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn. The deaths, Gates said, were previously reported, but it was not known at the time that they were caused by the Type 1b strain of Listeria monocytogenes .

‘Significant . . . Outbreak’

“In simple terms, this means that a significant community outbreak of listeriosis has now been identified which is unrelated to Jalisco cheese,” Gates said.

Gates said preliminary analysis of a single sample of contaminated Cacique cheese “indicates it is Type 1, but further analysis is necessary to determine whether or not it is Type 1b. At this time, we are still unable to confirm whether there is any relationship between the increase in Type 1b cases and the contamination of Cacique cheese.”

Notices about the new bacteria cluster have been sent to all physicians, hospitals, boarding homes for the elderly and the Los Angeles County Medical Assn. and its Poison Control Center, Gates said. The department had been criticized for failing to issue such notices while awaiting final confirmation of the Jalisco outbreak.