SEQUIM — Dungeness Valley Creamery’s raw milk from its Jersey cows is back on store shelves after nearly two weeks of a voluntary recall.
Staff with the state Department of Agriculture gave an all-clear for current samples of milk Monday, after Shiga-toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) — which can damage the digestive tract — was found in two separate samples from late March and early April.
Creamery co-owner Ryan McCarthey said the creamery began April 9 to pull from shelves milk products with an expiration date between April 6-20.
Current “all clear” creamery milk products have an expiration date of April 30.
“We did everything we can on the sanitation side from milk handling to cow milking,” McCarthey said.
That included deep cleaning all of the equipment and the bottling plant, milk parlor and barn, and further inspecting the cows.
Ryan and Sarah McCarthey sent samples from the recalled batch and a newer batch of samples to a third party food inspection company and learned Saturday that the new batch was clear of E. coli.
“We wanted some piece of mind,” McCarthey said.
“After our remediation cleaning, we wanted to see if they can detect anything.”
On Facebook, the couple said they believe they “isolated the actual problem to a failed rubber gasket inside a milk pump.”
To further their cleaning effort, the McCartheys also announced they plan to test the milk of each of their 60-plus Jersey cows to learn more about their health.
A quarterly inspection was moved up to April 8 by the state and the Creamery’s barn came back with a positive rating of 100 percent for the bottling plant and 99 percent for the barn with a point taken off for some wear in concrete outside the barn, McCarthey said.
The state reported that no illnesses have been found related to the recalled product.
Due to state regulations, the raw milk creamery must put warnings on each product that it is not pasteurized and may contain harmful bacteria.
Health officials also caution infants, younger children, senior citizens, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems from consuming raw milk.
State officials said E. coli infections can cause severe diarrhea, stomach cramps and/or bloody stools, and that symptoms generally appear three-four days after exposure and up to nine days to appear.
In some cases, infection causes hemolytic uremic syndrome where red blood cells are destroyed resulting in kidney failure. Those with these symptoms should contact a health care provider, state officials said.
Following the recall, the McCartheys estimate they lost about $40,000 in sales and one supplier with two stores but “the generous contributions of our community have significantly mitigated these losses and so far will provide approximately 1,000 gallons of milk that will be donated to local food banks over the coming months.”
A GoFundMe account for the creamery created by supporter Patti Bostwick at www.gofundme.com/life-on-a-raw-milk-dairy had raised $7,936 of a $10,000 goal as of Wednesday. The McCartheys said the fundraiser will remain active for a little while to help distribute products to local food banks at wholesale delivery pricing.
The creamery’s raw milk is now available in about 50 retail stores across Western Washington, including stores in both Clallam and Jefferson counties.
For more information and updates on the Dungeness Valley Creamery, 1915 Towne Road, call 360-683-0716 or visit www.facebook.com/dungenessvalleycreamery.
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at mnash@sequimgazette.com.
