FDA Closes Raw Milk Cheese Outbreak After 18 Illnesses

The cheese at the center of this recall is built to sit in a refrigerator for months, and that's where the last of the story sits too. Sierra Nevada Cheese Company recalled its Graziers grass-fed raw milk cheeses after investigators tied them to E. coli O26:H11 infections. Eighteen people got sick across 10 states. Fifteen were interviewed about what they'd eaten, and every one of them named the Graziers cheese.

On November 13, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared the outbreak over, and the Food and Drug Administration closed its investigation. The illnesses began on dates from July 7 to September 20, 2026. Nine people were hospitalized. Three developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, a type of kidney failure that E. coli infections can trigger, and no one died. The cases came from California, Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Tennessee and Utah.

Investigators then found the strain in the product itself. The California Department of Public Health collected an opened sample of the Graziers raw medium cheddar from a sick person's home, and it tested positive for E. coli that matched the outbreak strain by whole genome sequencing. A Michigan sample of the same cheese carried a different E. coli strain. Both samples came from cheese covered by the recall, and neither should still be for sale.

The recall came early in the investigation. The FDA contacted Sierra Nevada Cheese Company on September 24, 2026, and the company agreed that day to recall all of its Graziers raw milk cheeses. The recall covers medium cheddar, sharp cheddar, jalapeño jack and Monterey jack, sold at retail in 8-ounce and 16-ounce packages and to food service customers and wholesalers in 5-pound loaves. The cheeses were sold at retailers nationwide and online, and they were also distributed to the Republic of Korea.

The agencies' last word is a warning about shelf life, not store shelves. Recalled product should no longer be for sale, but raw milk cheese keeps for months, so the FDA is asking consumers to check their homes and discard the cheese or return it for a refund. Cheese that was refrigerated or frozen without its original packaging, and can't be identified, should be thrown away. Surfaces and containers the cheese touched should be cleaned and sanitized, because E. coli spreads by cross-contamination.

Symptoms of an E. coli infection start anywhere from a few days after eating contaminated food to nine days later. They include severe stomach cramps, diarrhea, fever, nausea and vomiting, and some infections cause severe bloody diarrhea. Anyone who ate the recalled cheese and develops those symptoms should contact a health care provider right away, the FDA says. The outbreak count won't change now. The fridge check is the part that's still open.