Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued its highest-risk warning for recalled Graziers raw milk cheese products on Monday, amid concerns over a multi-state E. coli outbreak that has sickened 13 people and hospitalized eight. The Class I classification, issued on Monday, applied to all affected Graziers raw milk cheese products manufactured by California-based Sierra Nevada Cheese Company, including Monterey Jack, jalapeño jack, medium cheddar and sharp cheddar varieties. A Class I recall is the FDA's most serious category as it means there is a reasonable probability that using or being exposed to a recalled product could cause serious adverse health consequences or death.
The recall affects products sold in retail packaging and larger formats supplied to food-service customers and wholesalers. Consumers were warned not to eat the cheeses, according to the recall information. The affected products were distributed in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, New Jersey, Oregon, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin.
The voluntary recall was announced by the company on September 28. The outbreak involves Escherichia coli O26, a strain of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli that can cause severe illness. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 13 people across nine states had been infected as of September 25.
Eight had been hospitalized and three had developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a potentially life-threatening complication that can cause kidney failure, but no deaths had been reported. More than half of those infected were children aged 5 or younger. The CDC said all nine people interviewed about their food consumption before becoming ill reported eating Graziers raw milk cheese, while genetic analysis also showed that bacteria collected from infected people were closely related, suggesting the illness came from the same source.
Newsweek has approached the Sierra Nevada Cheese Company for comment via email. The recall comes amid a wider series of foodborne illness investigations this year involving pathogens including Cyclospora, Salmonella and Listeria. One of the largest foodborne illness events in the United States this year involved Cyclospora, a parasite that causes an intestinal infection known as cyclosporiasis.
In its most up-to-date records from September 15, the CDC said it had received reports of 19,883 laboratory-confirmed cases of cyclosporiasis acquired in the United States among people whose symptoms began between May 1 and August 31, 2026. That compared with 1,180 cases reported over the same period in 2025. The 2026 figures included 1,064 hospitalizations and two deaths, with cases reported in 49 states and the District of Columbia.
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