SEQUIM — Dungeness Valley Creamery of Sequim is advising customers to discontinue consumption of their retail raw milk and cream products with best by dates of Sept. 29 and Sept. 30.
The voluntary advisory issued Tuesday was delivered out of an abundance of caution, the dairy said in a press release.
The products were bottled in gallon, half-gallon, quart, and pint containers and were sold to customers from retail stores that included some in Western Washington.
The only retail outlet on the North Olympic Peninsula was Sunny Farms in Sequim, said co-owner Ryan McCarthey.
No other best by dates were impacted.
McCarthey said that the stores impacted had been notified.
Routine sampling
The advisory was initiated after routine sampling conducted by the state Department of Agriculture found that toxin-producing E. coli was in a sample of retail raw cream with a best by date of Sept. 29.
Dungeness Valley Creamery and the state Department of Agriculture continue to work jointly to address the source of the problem, the press release said.
“We want to know if that is truly representative of the whole batch,” McCarthey said.
So Dungeness Valley Creamery submitted seven samples (three additional samples of the suspect Sept. 29 cream, along with Oct. 5 cream, Oct. 6 cream, Sept. 30 milk, and Sept. 7 milk), and all seven samples tested negative for E. coli, the dairy said.
All other production dates are not impacted by the notice, the dairy said.
Shiga toxin-producing E. coli infections can cause severe diarrhea, stomach cramps and bloody stool.
Illness
Symptoms generally appear three to four days after exposure, but can take as long as nine days to appear.
Infants, children, pregnant women, the elderly and those with compromised immune systems are at risk of more serious complications.
There are no known illnesses associated with any Dungeness Valley Creamery products, the dairy said.
Consumers with questions may contact the company at 360-683-0716 between the hours of 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.
