Most of the sick are five or under. Check the fridge for Graziers raw-milk cheese.

CDC and FDA confirmed a 13-person E. coli O26:H11 outbreak tied to Sierra Nevada Cheese Company's Graziers grass-fed raw-milk cheeses. Eight people were hospitalized. Three developed hemolytic uremic syndrome. Nobody has died. The median age of the sick is 5. More than half are children age 5 or younger.

Illnesses started between 7 July and 26 August 2026 in California, Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Tennessee and Utah. Everyone interviewed had eaten the cheese. On 24 September the company recalled every Graziers raw-milk cheese still on the market: medium cheddar, sharp cheddar, jalapeño jack and Monterey jack in 8-oz and 16-oz packs and 5-lb loaves. The product keeps for months. If it is still in the house, throw it out or return it.

## Why this cheese, why this age

Pasteurization kills E. coli. Raw-milk cheese skips that step. Shiga toxin from O26 can shut down a young child's kidneys. That is HUS. It is why bloody diarrhea in a toddler is an emergency.

Raw-milk advocates say carefully aged cheese from grass-fed herds is a traditional food and outbreaks are rare next to the volume sold. Public-health agencies answer that the rare cases pile up in the age group that cannot choose the risk. This week's list — median age 5, three HUS cases, 62 percent hospitalized — is that answer in a table.

## What to do

Do not eat recalled Graziers raw-milk cheddar, jack or jalapeño jack. Wash boards and fridge shelves that touched it. If a child who ate it has diarrhea, especially bloody diarrhea, call a clinician. Do not give anti-diarrheal medicine unless a doctor says so. Watch for pallor, fewer wet diapers, swelling or unusual sleepiness in the week after.

FDA has not named a lot or a plant step, which is why the recall is the whole raw-milk line. Watch for added cases and a traceback note. For parents the useful fact is already on the label.

Sources: CDC outbreak page and FDA advisory, 25 September 2026; Sierra Nevada Cheese Company recall.