Urgent recall of popular cheese issued – batches tainted with bacteria that kills one in 20

Health chiefs have slapped an urgent ‘do not eat’ warning on a popular brand of blue cheese over fears some batches are contaminated with deadly bacteria.

Food Standards Scotland (FSS) warned that Isle of Mull Cheese’s Hebridean Blue Cheese may contain Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC), which can trigger severe food poising and life-threatening kidney problems. 

No other Isle of Mull Cheese products are known to be affected. 

STEC is considered to be extremely infectious, only a few bacteria need to be ingested for a person to become ill.

Symptoms of infection include vomiting, fever, stomach cramps and diarrhoea which can last up to two weeks.

But in up to 15 per cent of cases, the bug can cause haemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a life-threatening condition that can lead to kidney failure. 

Children under the age of five are at the highest risk of HUS.

However, it can also affect other vulnerable groups, including the elderly and immunocompromised.

The recall notice affects all pack sizes with a best before date of April 10, 2025 and a batch code 8051224. 

Customers who have purchased the product have been urged not to eat it and return it to the store from where it was bought for a full refund.

The company said in response: ‘Most varieties of cheese in the world are produced are from raw milk.

‘It has been used to preserve food for hundreds, if not thousands of years.

‘Producing raw milk cheese is tough. The cheese being recalled would have passed normal testing as no pathogens were found using agar plates.

‘Cooking the cheese will totally remove any possibility of illness. We have withdrawn all Hebridean Blue cheese for further testing.’ 

The news comes after a recent string of recalls due to E.coli contamination. 

More than 100 Brits were struck down by the bug in under a fortnight last year—with contaminated lettuce in sandwiches eventually found to be the cause.

Seven cases of HUS were reported at the time and there was one death.

More than 60 sandwiches, wraps and salads sold in 11 major shops were given ‘do not eat’ alerts as precautionary measure.

Experts believe the texture of lettuce makes it more prone to being contaminated with E. coli though water tainted with infected animal faeces and the fact it’s not cooked, which would usually kill off bugs, increasing the risk.

While the majority of known cases are thought to have been from consumption from infected food, two are believed to have been passed from person to person, for example parents caring for children who caught the bug.

People have been advised to contact NHS 111 or their GP if they or their children show any symptoms of E. coli infection.