Cacique Cheese Called ‘Consumable’ by State

State and local law enforcement and health officials Friday appeared ready to give a clean bill of health to Cacique Cheese Co., a Mexican-style cheese producer that has been the target of a major investigation and recall since the discovery of disease-producing bacteria in some of its products.

As of Friday, a state Department of Food and Agriculture spokesperson said, the products of the City of Industry firm are “consumable.”

At the county level, Dr. Shirley Fannin, associate director of the Health Services Department’s communicable disease control programs, said Jalisco Mexican Products of Artesia might be responsible for both the original strain of the bacteria Listeria monocytogenes-- Type 4b--involved in the current outbreak, and a newly identified cluster of the same bacteria--Type 1b.

Together, the clusters, which could be caused by flaws in pasteurization, have caused about five dozen deaths nationally. County health officials Friday reported a 37th death in Los Angeles County, involving the unborn child of a 34-year-old Latino woman from central Los Angeles. Two more cases of Listeria poisoning were reported Friday, both involving young pregnant Latino women.

The Jalisco firm was closed June 13, and all of its products were recalled when they were linked to the potentially deadly bacteria. The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office is currently conducting a criminal investigation of the Jalisco company.

New Cluster Reported

Jalisco was first associated just with the Type 4b bacteria. In the past week, a new cluster of Listeria, Type 1b, was reported by the county Health Services Department. Six of the reported deaths resulted from the Type 1b cluster, said Robert C. Gates, the Health Services director.

But a County/USC Medical Center study of 13 pregnant women who had contracted what could prove to be the Type 1b listeriosis showed that they had not eaten Cacique products but had ingested Jalisco products, Dr. Fannin said.

“They were highly associated with Jalisco” cheeses and not those of Cacique, she said.

At this point, it is not known what type of Listeria was found at Cacique.

A final word on the matter is expected to come next week from the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, which is testing a Listeria culture from the Cacique plant.

But even if the culture turns out to be Type 1b, county officials cautioned, no conclusions can be reached that Cacique caused sickness or, indeed, death, until it can be proven that a victim actually ate a piece of contaminated Cacique cheese containing the disease-causing bacteria.

Voluntarily Closed

Both the federal Food and Drug Administration and the state Department of Food and Agriculture have inspectors at the Cacique plant, which was voluntarily closed by the owner this week. Cacique is one of the largest producers of soft, unripened Mexican-style cheeses and recalled its products in 13 states.

The company has challenged state officials who have said the bacteria discovered in its new City of Industry plant resulted from the use of unpasteurized milk in its products. All milk used in its cheeses is properly pasteurized, a company spokesman asserted.

“We can’t see anything at this point in time that’s out of line” at the Cacique plant, Jan Wessell, spokeswoman for the state Food and Agriculture Department said Friday. “The tests run by our inspector (show) a good clean product. . . . Their products are consumable.

“We’ve determined there’s no major discrepancies” in the pasteurization process now, she added.

At Jalisco, questions have been raised by the district attorney’s office over whether the firm was attempting to process more raw milk through its pasteurization machinery than it could handle.

FDA Inspectors on Job

Regarding the bacteria discovered at the Cacique plant, Wessell said, “We don’t know how that happened.”

Seven FDA inspectors, six from Los Angeles and one from Washington, were still studying Cacique operations on Friday. An FDA spokesman had no comment on the agency’s investigation.