February 22, 2014 by
Carla Gillespie
Listeria in soft cheeses sold at
Megamart
stores has killed one person in California and sickened seven others in
Maryland since August, according to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC). Seven people have been hospitalized. A recall has not
been issued.
The
contaminated soft cheeses including queso fresco were made by Roos
Foods of Kenton, Delaware and repackaged by Megamart, which describes
itself as a 100 percent Latino supermarket. Megamart has five stores in
Maryland located in Silver Spring, Hyattsville, Riverdale, Rockville,
Gaithersburg and one in Manassas, Virginia. All of the cases patients in
this outbreak are Hispanic.
On February 15, Virginia’s agriculture department
announced it had found
Listeria monocytogenes,
in a sample of Cuajada en Terron (Fresh Cheese Curd) collected from
Megamart’s Manassas store at 8328 Shopper’s Square. Ag officials warned
consumers not to eat the cheese which was sold in clear, unlabeled
plastic bags in the store’s cheese cooler. At that time, no illnesses
had been reported in Virginia.
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