A cheese that was recently available in grocery stores turned out to be contaminated, and it can kill you.
Packages of queso cheese were recently recalled due to being contaminated with a deadly bacteria that is particularly dangerous for children, pregnant people, and anyone with weakened immune systems.
The queso was sold in Utah grocery stores, until the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) discovered the listeria contamination and issued a recall in April 2024. We do not yet know if the cheese made its way into restaurant usage.
But how did this happen? Sign the petition to demand an investigation and answers!The contamination was so severe, in fact, that the FDA needed to utilize
its most serious, urgent recall classification, known as Class 1. This class is reserved for recalls that occur when "there is a reasonable probability that the use of or exposure to a violative product will cause serious adverse health consequences or death."
This isn't the first time the FDA has needed to recall cheese products due to toxic listeria. In fact, many cheese, dairy, deli meat, and smoked fish products are vulnerable to this kind of contamination - and a lot of them have been recalled already this year.
So far, no one has come forward to report any illnesses directly linked to this particular Utah cheese. But that doesn't mean no one has actually gotten sick, and it doesn't mean no one will get sick in the future from already-purchased products.
It's important that we find out what happened here. We shouldn't have to worry that our grocery store purchases might kill us. Sign the petition to demand that the FDA investigate how this happened!