On Friday, September 25, the CDC and FDA announced that a multistate outbreak of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli O26:H11 has been linked to Graziers grass-fed raw milk cheese made by Sierra Nevada Cheese Company of Willows, California. Thirteen people in nine states are sick. Eight have been hospitalized, and three have developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), the kidney failure that follows some E. coli infections. No one has died. The median age of the sick is 5, and more than half of them are children age 5 or younger.
All four Graziers raw milk varieties — medium cheddar, sharp cheddar, jalapeño jack and Monterey jack — have been recalled. They were sold nationwide, in stores and online, in 8-ounce and 16-ounce packages and in 5-pound loaves to restaurants, delis and wholesalers. The cheese has a long shelf life. If any of it is in your refrigerator or freezer, do not eat it.
The numbers, as of September 25
CDC’s count:
- 13 confirmed illnesses in nine states: California (3), Nevada (3), and one each in Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Oregon, Tennessee and Utah.
- 8 hospitalized — 62 percent of the people with information available.
- 3 cases of HUS.
- 0 deaths.
- Ages range from 1 to 58, with a median of 5. Sixty-two percent are female.
- Illnesses began between July 7 and August 26, 2026 — six in July and seven in August.
Nine sick people or their caregivers have been interviewed, and all nine reported eating Graziers raw milk cheese. For comparison, only 4.9 percent of respondents in CDC’s FoodNet Population Survey report eating raw milk cheese in a given week. Whole genome sequencing shows the bacteria from the sick people are closely related, which means they share a common source. San Diego County reports that two of California’s three cases are San Diego County children under 5.
The timeline matters. The first illness began on July 7; FDA did not contact the company until September 24, more than eleven weeks later. That lag is not unusual — CDC says it typically takes three to four weeks to link a sick person to an outbreak — but with a long-shelf-life cheese it means recalled product is almost certainly still sitting in homes, and CDC says the true number of sick people is likely much higher than 13.
The recall
FDA notified Sierra Nevada Cheese Company of the outbreak on September 24 and recommended a recall. The company agreed the same day and recalled all Graziers raw milk cheeses. In a statement posted to social media, the company said the illnesses have been associated with its medium cheddar, but that it is recalling every Graziers raw milk cheese on the market because the investigation has not narrowed to a specific lot or date code. That means there are no codes to check: every package of the four varieties is in the recall.
The 5-pound loaves are a particular problem. Cheese sold in bulk to food service and wholesale customers gets cut, re-wrapped and sold under a store’s own label, and FDA has told retailers that repackaged it not to sell it. If you bought cut raw milk cheddar or jack from a deli or cheese counter this summer and cannot tell where it came from, throw it out. FDA says its investigation into the source of the contamination, and into whether other products are affected, is ongoing.
This is not the company’s first problem with raw milk. In August 2025, California’s State Veterinarian ordered a statewide recall and quarantine of Sierra Nevada’s Bella Capra raw goat milk cheddar after California Department of Food and Agriculture testing found Listeria monocytogenes in the cheese.
“Aged 60 days” is not a kill step
Raw milk cheese is legal to sell across state lines. FDA’s standards of identity for cheddar (21 CFR 133.113) and Monterey jack (21 CFR 133.153) allow unpasteurized milk if the cheese is cured at not less than 35°F for at least 60 days — a rule adopted in 1949 on the theory that acid, salt and time would finish off whatever pasteurization was not there to kill. FDA has known for a decade that the theory does not hold. Beginning in 2014, it tested 1,606 aged raw milk cheeses because, in its own words, evidence indicated that 60 days of aging may not eliminate or adequately reduce disease-causing bacteria. It found Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes and Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, each in under one percent of samples, and generic E. coli, the indicator of insanitary processing, in 5.4 percent. Then it stopped large-scale sampling.
The outbreak record since then is what the sampling predicted. Every one of these cheeses met the 60-day rule:
- February 2024 — Raw Farm, LLC (Fresno, California), raw cheddar, E. coli O157:H7: 11 sick in five states, 5 hospitalized, 2 with HUS.
- October 2025 — Twin Sisters Creamery (Ferndale, Washington), aged raw milk cheese, E. coli O103 and O26: 10 sick in Washington and Oregon, 1 hospitalized. The Washington State Department of Health noted the cheese “is aged at least 60 days, as required by law.” (I represent a claimant in that outbreak.)
- March 2026 — Raw Farm again, raw cheddar and raw milk, E. coli O157:H7: 9 sick in three states, 3 hospitalized, 1 with HUS. Over half the sick were children under 5.
- September 2026 — Sierra Nevada Graziers, E. coli O26:H11: 13 sick in nine states, 8 hospitalized, 3 with HUS. Over half are age 5 or younger.
Four outbreaks in a little over two and a half years: 43 people sick, 17 hospitalized, at least six with HUS, all from cheese that complied with federal law. The same O26 serogroup that is sickening people now turned up in the Twin Sisters cheese last fall. This is no longer a story about one bad dairy.
What FDA needs to do
I have been working on a citizen petition to FDA under 21 CFR 10.30 asks for two things. First, a prescribed warning statement on cheese made from unpasteurized milk, added to 21 CFR 101.17 — the same regulation that has required a warning on unpasteurized juice since 1998, after a child died in the 1996 Odwalla E. coli O157:H7 outbreak, and a safe-handling statement on shell eggs. The warning would have to travel with the cheese, onto cut-to-order pieces, imports and online listings, because a parent at a deli counter cannot read the fine print on a 5-pound loaf that was cut and re-wrapped in the back. Second, FDA should finish the reevaluation of the 60-day rule that it announced in 2013, when it released the joint FDA/Health Canada listeriosis risk assessment, and has never completed.
CDC’s advice in this very outbreak is to choose pasteurized milk and dairy products, and that doing so “is especially important for children under 5.” FDA and CDC already say that on their websites. The petition asks them to say it on the package, where a parent will see it.
What to do now
- Check your refrigerator and freezer for Graziers medium cheddar, sharp cheddar, jalapeño jack or Monterey jack. Throw it away or return it for a refund. If you stored raw milk cheese without its original packaging and cannot identify it, throw it away.
- Wash and sanitize anything the cheese touched: cutting boards, knives, containers and refrigerator shelves.
- Watch for symptoms. E. coli O26 usually causes severe stomach cramps, diarrhea that is often bloody, and vomiting, beginning three to four days after eating the contaminated food and sometimes as late as nine days. Call a doctor for bloody diarrhea, a fever above 102°F, diarrhea lasting more than two days, vomiting that keeps you from holding down liquids, or signs of dehydration.
- In young children, watch for the signs of HUS: urinating less often, unusual tiredness, and losing the pink color in the cheeks and inside the lower eyelids. Those are emergency-room symptoms.
Marler Clark has represented victims of E. coli and HUS since the 1993 Jack in the Box outbreak, including families whose children were sickened in earlier raw milk and raw milk cheese outbreaks. If you or a family member developed an E. coli infection or HUS after eating Sierra Nevada Graziers raw milk cheese, we can be reached at 1-800-884-9840. And if you are wondering whether raw milk cheese is worth it for your family, CDC’s answer this week is the same as mine: choose pasteurized.
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