OXNARD : Police Seek Man in Illegal Cheese Sales

County health officials and Oxnard police are looking for a man who sold dangerously contaminated, unlabeled cheese door to door in Oxnard.

The cheese, peddled in the Colonia area of Oxnard and in front of La Gloria Market, 430 S. Oxnard Blvd., is believed to contain listeria, said Robert Salas, an investigator with the district attorney’s consumer protection unit.

In a 1985 incident in the Los Angeles area involving Jalisco Mexican Products Inc., cheese contaminated with listeria was blamed in the deaths of 20 to 40 people, most of them newborn infants, and in the illnesses of 100 people. Symptoms of listeria poisoning include severe stomach pains and high fevers.

Ventura County authorities were alerted in late September to the possible contamination when a pregnant woman became extremely ill within an hour of eating cheese bought from a door-to-door salesman. Hospital tests indicated traces of listeria in the woman’s system.

Health officials are concerned that the man may make another batch of cheese contaminated with listeria. “If he sold one bad batch to 20 or 30 people, at least half of those people could die,” Salas said.

Although listeria poisoning can come from other sources, it is most commonly contracted from cheese, Salas said. Another source of the bacteria is contact with human feces.

The cheese believed to be contaminated is wrapped in plain white paper and lacks proper labeling, Salas said.

“The suspect probably got wind that we were looking for him. We haven’t had any reports since the first of October that he has been around at all,” Salas said.