Whole Foods recalling cheese after FDA finds Listeria during a sample test

A specific kind of cheese is about to be recalled from stores nationwide by Whole Foods after an unsafe form of bacteria that causes listeria infections has been discovered by the US Food and Drug Administration officials.

Whole Foods said in a statement on its website that the company is recalling the Papillion Organic Roquefort cheese from their stores after FDA officials have discovered proof of the Listeria Monocytogenes in an uncut wheel of the cheese at the time of a sample test. As per the company, all sell-by dates of the cheese have got affected.Papillion did not revert to requests for comment immediately.

The company has reported that presently no cases of illnesses or infections linked to the bacteria have been reported so far, but as per the experts, infections related to the bacteria can’t be tracked down easily because of a long incubation period.

A food safety lawyer Bill Marlerhas pointed out that the incubation for a Listeria infection can be anywhere from 2 to 60 days. He said that Listeria is quite hard to track.

Very young and old, along with pregnant women and anyone who has a compromised immune system are vulnerable for listeria infections, which can be fatal.The symptoms of the listeria include high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea. If a pregnant woman gets infected by the bacteria, she can have a miscarriage or stillbirth.

In an email to ABC News, Marler said, “It goes to show how important it is to do end product testing, before, the product is shipped”.

"Listeria is very, very hard to track," he said. In a statement on the Whole Foods website, the company said it is recalling the Papillion Organic Roquefort cheese in their stores after FDA officials found evidence of the Listeria Monocytogenes in an uncut wheel of the cheese during a sample test. All sell-by dates of the cheese have been affected according to the company.