Thread: Probe into salmonella outbreak prompts search for illegal ch

Probe into salmonella outbreak prompts search for illegal cheese

By William Presecky
Tribune staff reporter
Published March 22, 2007, 8:28 PM CDT

State health officials are searching for an illegal Mexican-style cheese manufacturer as the possible source of a recurring salmonella outbreak in Kane County, authorities said Thursday.

A sample unlabeled cheese taken by a county health inspector from an Aurora store tested positive this week for salmonella Newport, the same strain identified with the outbreak that has sickened more than 30 people, according to Paul Kuehnert, deputy director of the Kane County Health Department.

Although the contaminated cheese has not been pinpointed as the source, the Kane department issued a warning Thursday about the dangers of consuming illegally manufactured cheeses.

The state Department of Public Health is expected to extend the warning to the entire Chicago region, Kuehnert said.

"Anyone that has white, Mexican-style cheeses in their possession should immediately dispose of those cheeses. It may not be safe, and it may make them ill," he said.

"We're not saying this [salmonella-tainted cheese] is 100 percent the cause of our illness outbreak in Kane County," he said. But "it looks very likely. ... "We are issuing this warning particularly for cheeses that may have been unlabeled or are questionably labeled and were bought either from street vendors or Hispanic stores," he said.

Information provided so far by the owners of El Paso Carniceria, in Aurora, where the contaminated cheese was found, has not helped identify the exact source, Kuehnert said.

"It may be an individual. It may be a company. We simply don't know," he said. "We've heard certain things, but at this point they are all speculative. We're working with state health department investigators to try to get to the bottom of it."

Kane health officials have visited all of the estimated 40 Hispanic groceries in the county and have ordered their owners "to pull all Mexican cheeses of questionable origin off their shelves," Kuehnert said.

Aided by other health departments, additional interviews and product sampling will continue to more precisely pinpoint the source of the salmonella outbreak, he said.

Since January 2006 Kane County has identified 32 cases of salmonella Newport, of which 29 have involved Hispanic residents.

Questions or comments about the warning or the probe are being directed to a special bilingual hot line, 630-444-3300.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... &cset=true

This wonderful globalism is really something, isn't it?

We've wheat contaminated with rat poison coming in from China, and illegal, samonella contaminated Mexican-style cheese in Chicago.

I've lost track of all of the other poisoned food outbreaks we've had in the last six months.

When is Bush going to create a Department of Homeland Security to start dealing with these problems?

More BATH TUB CHEESE? Haven't they learned their lesson by now?

10 years ago, this would have been all over the news--even if
it was contained in Chicago. Today, nada. Does anyone know
of an Internet news show that REALLY covers national news (even though it is very nice to get a lot from alipac)?