Serving Franklin County, WA
Serving Franklin County, WA
OTHELLO — State officials say they have linked an E. Coli outbreak to contaminated yogurt from a local dairy farm.
The state Department of Health said the outbreak is connected to yogurt produced by Pure Eire Dairy, owned and operated by Richard and Jill Smith, and sold at PCC Community Market stores.
State health officials said Monday that at least 11 people, including six children younger than 10, have been sickened by the contaminated yogurt; seven have been hospitalized. The cases are in King, Benton, Snohomish and Walla Walla counties, officials said.
Acting state health officer Scott Lindquist called the cases, so far, just the “tip of the iceberg,” noting it’ll take a couple weeks to determine the extent of the outbreak.
The organic dairy has since pulled its yogurt products.
On its website, the dairy has posted a recall notice:
“Out of abundance of caution, we have halted sales and production of our yogurt products as we investigate a possible link to E. coli contamination. We take any and all possible contamination concerns seriously as our goal has always been to provide healthy, nutritional products to our consumers. Please discontinue eating any yogurt you have on hand. Refunds will be available.”
The state Department of Agriculture is investigating the cause of the outbreak.
Pure Eire says it will provide refunds for any of its yogurt. Anyone who bought the yogurt should return it to the store.
Roger Harnack is the owner/publisher of Free Press Publishing. Having grown up Benton City, Roger is an award-winning journalist, photographer, editor and publisher. He's one of only two editorial/commentary writers from Washington state to ever receive the international Golden Quill. Roger is dedicated to the preservation of local media, and the voice it retains for Eastern Washington.
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