Salmonella outbreak linked to non-dairy cheese made from raw cashews was the sixth-largest multistate food poisoning outbreak of 2014. The outbreak sickened 17 people in three states. Three people were hospitalized.
Public health investigators used pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) technology to obtain a DNA “fingerprint” of the outbreak strain. The tests revealed that the outbreak strain of Salmonella Stanley is rare and only been seen 20 times prior to this outbreak.
Symptoms of Salmonella poisoning include abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting, fever and diarrhea which, may be bloody diarrhea. In some cases, the infection can travel to the bloodstream producing more severe illness.
Most of the illnesses in this outbreak occurred during November 2013. The last reported date of onset of illness was January 3, the same day the outbreak was announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Fifteen of the illnesses were in California. Nevada and Wyoming each reported one case.
Case patients ranged in age from 2 years to 83 years old. The median age was 27. Fifty-three percent of case patients were male.
The maker of the cheese, Cultured Kitchen of West Sacramento, issued a recall for the cheese on December 31, 2013. The recalled cheeses were sold in eight-ounce plastic containers in t a variety of flavors including: herb, smoked cheddar, pepper jack, habanero cilantro lime, basil pesto and white cheddar. Click the link above, for more details about the recall.
