Milk in Cheese Linked to Deaths Properly Pasteurized, State Says

Investigators have decided that milk used to make a Mexican-style cheese linked to the recent deaths of 29 Southern Californians was properly pasteurized, a state official said Sunday.

A breakdown in the pasteurization process, which kills disease-producing bacteria in milk, was among the likeliest candidates as a source of the contamination of Jalisco Mexican Products Inc.’s queso fresco and cotija cheeses, said Hans Van Nes, deputy director of the state Department of Food and Agriculture.

“The first and most critical thing that could have gone wrong was pasteurization,” Van Nes said. “If the pasteurization broke down, it was the likely cause of this (epidemic) happening. But they (investigators at the cheese factory) told me that they felt that pasteurization was excellent. The temperatures and all of the records were in order.”

A 15-member team of investigators from the state Food and Agriculture Department, the federal Centers for Disease Control, and other state and federal agencies spent the weekend scouring the Artesia plant to find out how the Jalisco cheese became contaminated with the bacteria Listeria monocytogenes.

Health inspectors are now examining other ingredients and handling processes both before and after production, Van Nes said. In addition, records of previous sanitation inspections will be checked.

“There are some aspects of sanitation that are very critical--cleansing of equipment, handling of the product and cooling,” Van Nes said.

During the weekend Jalisco inquiry, investigators did a spot sanitation check of the factory and rated it at 85 on a scale of 100, Van Nes said. “That’s a passing score,” he said.

Listeria infection is being blamed for 29 deaths and stillbirths and 59 illnesses in Los Angeles and Orange counties since mid-March, according to county health authorities.

Once consumed through food products, Listeria can produce illnesses that range from mild nausea and flu-like symptoms to fatal infections of the brain. Most vulnerable to the extreme forms of the disease are those with immune deficiencies, such as newborn infants and their mothers, the very old or those already ill, experts say. Health department officials said that 15 of the dead were newborn and stillborn babies. Three infected infants are currently hospitalized at University of California, Irvine, Medical Center where, according to hospital spokeswomen, they are “doing fine.” The three babies, whose mothers had eaten Jalisco cheese products before childbirth, are taking antibiotics and will remain on the medication for the next week or two.

Jalisco--which markets 28 varieties of cheese under the brand names Jalisco, Jiminez, La Vaquita and Guadalajara--voluntarily recalled its entire line of dairy products Friday. Although Jalisco cheeses are mostly sold in California and Arizona, they are also marketed in Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio and Tennessee.