QUESOS LA RICURA brand Queso Cotija; Cotija Cheese; AGED OVER 60 DAYS; Ingredients: Raw…
Quesos La Ricura, Ltd. recalled this product and the FDA reported the enforcement action on 12 February 2020 as Class I. The recall was initiated by the firm. Possible contamination with Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC).
The record
Every field below is published by the FDA in the openFDA food enforcement database. Check the FDA notice before acting on any recall: this page is a reading of the public record, not a substitute for it.
- Product
- QUESOS LA RICURA brand Queso Cotija; Cotija Cheese; AGED OVER 60 DAYS; Ingredients: Raw Milk, Salt, Enzyme and Cultures; KEEP REFRIGERATED/MANTENER REFRIGERADO; NET WT/PESO NETO 12 OZ. (340g); Plant No/Numero de Planta 36-1256; PRODUCT OF NICARAGUA
- Reason for recall
- Possible contamination with Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC).
- Recalling firm
- Quesos La Ricura, Ltd.
- Firm location
- Hicksville, New York, United States
- Classification
- Class I
- Status
- Terminated
- Recall number
- F-0598-2020
- Quantity
- 640 units
- Distribution
- NY, FL, NC, GA, PA
- Initiated
- 24 January 2020
- Reported by FDA
- 12 February 2020
- Terminated
- 20 May 2020
- Firm notified by
- Two or more of the following: Email, Fax, Letter, Press Release, Telephone, Visit
- Product codes
- Sell by May 20, 2020-3/ May 20, 2020-4 UPC 7 69087 00933 6
Reading this record
Five things about this record are not in the record itself, and each one changes how it should be read.
- Class I means the FDA judged a reasonable probability that the product would cause serious health consequences or death. The class is assigned by an agency health hazard evaluation under 21 CFR 7.41, not by the firm.
- The firm started this recall itself. Most FDA food recalls are voluntary, and a recall is a food safety plan working rather than failing. The circumstances in which the agency asks for one instead are set out in 21 CFR 7.45.
- This record is the only one the FDA opened for its recall event, so it covers a single product code.
- The recall ran for 4 months, from 24 January 2020 to termination on 20 May 2020. Termination means the agency judged that all reasonable effort had been made, under 21 CFR 7.55, and it says nothing about whether product remained in circulation.
- The distribution pattern names 5 states, and the FDA published the enforcement report 3 weeks after the firm began the recall.
- Recalls of cheese run a median of 7 months, so this one was shorter than usual for its category. Cheese dominates Listeria recalls among dairy products because soft and semi-soft varieties hold enough moisture for the organism to grow at refrigeration temperature, and because most are eaten without any further cooking step.
Named in the distribution pattern: New York, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania. Those pages count recalls by where the RECALLING FIRM sits, which is a different question from where this product went.
What this recall was for
Chemical contamination
A chemical contamination recall covers a substance that is harmful in food and was never meant to be there: a heavy metal, a cleaning chemical, a pesticide residue, or a natural toxin such as aflatoxin or histamine.
A preventive controls plan covers chemical contamination under the clauses below. This is where the control belongs, not a finding against any firm named on this page: a recall record states a reason, and most of these recalls were initiated by the firm itself.
- 21 CFR 117.35(b)
- Substances used in cleaning and sanitizing: toxic materials stored, identified and used so they cannot contaminate food, food-contact surfaces or packaging.
- 21 CFR 117 subpart G
- Supply-chain programme: the approval and verification a receiving facility runs on a supplier when the hazard is controlled before the ingredient arrives.
- 21 CFR 117.130(b)(1)(ii)
- Hazard analysis: identifying the known or reasonably foreseeable chemical hazards, including radiological hazards, pesticide and drug residues, natural toxins and food decomposition.
E. coli
Shiga toxin-producing E. coli recalls concentrate in foods eaten raw or lightly cooked, where no step in the process is hot enough or long enough to be a kill step.
A preventive controls plan covers E. coli contamination under the clauses below. This is where the control belongs, not a finding against any firm named on this page: a recall record states a reason, and most of these recalls were initiated by the firm itself.
- 21 CFR 117.135(c)(1)
- Process controls: the controls that apply a treatment, such as a validated kill step, at the point where it reduces the hazard to a safe level.
- 21 CFR 117 subpart G
- Supply-chain programme: the approval and verification a receiving facility runs on a supplier when the hazard is controlled before the ingredient arrives.
- 21 CFR 120
- Juice HACCP: the hazard analysis and critical control point system required for juice processors, including a treatment achieving a 5-log pathogen reduction.
Filed under cheese, milk and dairy and spices and seasonings. A product can sit in more than one.
Other cheese recalls for the same reason
These are the closest records in the corpus: the same kind of food, recalled for a hazard this record also names. Unlike the firm’s own records below, they come from different companies, which is what makes them a pattern rather than a history.
Other records from Quesos La Ricura, Ltd.
The FDA opens one enforcement record per product code, so several of these are frequently one recall event.
| Reported | Product | Firm | Reason | Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-02-16 | Quesos La Ricura Mi Ranchito Fresh Cheese with Hot Peppers, 14. 0z. | Quesos La Ricura, Ltd. | May contain elevated levels of coliform | Class II |
All 2020 recalls · All FDA food recall data
21 CFR 117.35(b) is the clause behind this recall, and it is one somebody has to produce evidence for at their next audit. Krolda maps supplier documents to the clause they satisfy in FSSC 22000, IFS Food and 21 CFR 117, and routes the corrective action when the evidence is missing.
Early accessRecall records come from the openFDA food enforcement API, published by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the public domain. Krolda adds the hazard classification and the clause mapping; neither is an FDA determination. Always check the FDA notice before acting on a recall.