Italy Recalls a Raw Goat's Milk Roccaverano PDO Cheese Over STEC E. coli with the eae Gene

On September 28, Italy's Ministry of Health published on its notices portal the recall, for microbiological risk, of one lot of Roccaverano PDO cheese, in a 250-gram package, made by a producer in Piedmont. According to the notice circulated following that publication, the reason is the presence of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) carrying the eae gene. Consumers are advised not to eat the cheese and to return it to the point of sale.

Roccaverano is a soft cheese with Protected Designation of Origin, made from raw goat's milk in the hills of southern Piedmont. In Italy, the publication of recalls on the Ministry's portal is handled by the competent region, which receives the operator's communication after the assessment of the local health authority, and only the notices published there have official validity.

The detail of the eae gene is relevant: it encodes intimin, a protein that allows the bacterium to adhere intimately to the intestine, and STEC strains that combine Shiga toxin genes with eae are more frequently associated with bloody diarrhea and hemolytic uremic syndrome, especially in children. In a fresh raw-milk cheese, with no heat treatment or prolonged ripening, there is no stage of the process capable of eliminating that contamination.

For TAAG, the case reinforces that in raw-milk cheeses STEC surveillance must go beyond serotype O157 and rely on the detection of virulence genes, such as those for Shiga toxin and eae, which make it possible to rank the risk of a strain. Testing the milk of each batch and the cheese before release is the only real barrier in these products.