The owners of Eyot Creek Farm will stop making cheese for good because they are unable to pinpoint how some of their cheese became contaminated with E. coli bacteria and made 11 people ill.
“The main thing was the fact we were not able to find where the problem could have come from,” said Ted Koopmans, one of six owners who made their living from the 60-cow dairy.
Officials from Capital Health, the health authority in the Leduc, Alta., region, Alberta Agriculture and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency looked for the E. coli 0157 in milk samples and milk filters and took environmental swabs throughout the plant.
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They also took and individual manure samples from each of the 60 dairy cows without finding a trace of the deadly bacteria.
He said the three families aren’t willing to risk making cheese again without knowing if the contamination could reoccur even if they switched to pasteurized milk. The family has made gouda cheese since 1984 without a problem.
Even if the milk was pasteurized, the problem may not be solved because the contamination may have occurred in part of the process after milk pasteurization, said Koopmans.
“Capital Health makes it sound like a raw milk issue, but it’s not. At this point no one knows where it came from,” said Koopmans.
Three people will continue working with the cattle. The other three will have to find work off the farm, he said.
