Campaign Targets Homemade Cheeses

State and dairy industry officials launched a large-scale education campaign Tuesday warning against consumption of homemade “bathtub cheeses,” which are popular in the Latino community but have been linked to serious food poisoning outbreaks.

The campaign targets soft, white cheeses made by unlicensed manufacturers and sold illegally door-to-door, at swap meets and at mom-and-pop stores.

The effort was initiated after a number of suspicious disease outbreaks in California, including a wave of salmonella in three Northern California counties last spring that sickened more than 100 people, officials said. That was traced to batches of bootlegged cheese, frequently made from unpasteurized milk. Such cheeses also have been linked to outbreaks of listeriosis.

Both bacterial infections are characterized by diarrhea, fever, vomiting and other flu-like symptoms. They can cause serious complications in pregnant women, the elderly, the very young and those with compromised immune systems.

“We’ve found out this [underground cheese making] is widespread around the state,” said Adri Boudewyn, chief executive officer of the California Milk Advisory Board. He estimated that illicit manufacturers produce 46 million pounds of cheese a year in California.

The milk board is devoting more than $650,000 to the education campaign, anchored by advisories that will be aired on Spanish-language radio and television stations. The effort will be reinforced by the state Department of Health Services and the state Department of Food and Agriculture, Boudewyn said.

Efforts to crack down on illegal sales have not been very effective, officials said. This campaign “represents a new kind of thinking,” said Ann M. Veneman, secretary of the food and agriculture department.

State officials said a large part of the problem is cultural. In Mexico, these soft cheeses are often made in people’s homes.

Bacterial infections are often mistaken for the flu and go undetected, officials said. But “we know that biologically it is probable that [infections are] going to happen,” said Shirley Fannin, director of disease control programs for Los Angeles County. “It’s inevitable when you don’t pasteurize milk.”

Although the campaign announced Tuesday does not target licensed manufacturers, Fannin said an outbreak of listeriosis in 1985 that killed 39 people, traced to cheese made by Jalisco Mexican Products of Artesia, demonstrated the might of such infections.

Times staff writer Mark Gladstone contributed to this story.