Hebridean Blue Cheese recalled over fears it may cause kidney failure

The watchdog Food Standards Scotland said today (March 28): "Isle of Mull Cheese is recalling Hebridean Blue Cheese because Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) has been found in the product.

"Symptoms can include diarrhoea, abdominal pain, bloody diarrhoea, and haemolytic uraemic syndrome, a serious condition that can lead to kidney failure and can be fatal.

"If you have bought any of the above product do not eat it. Instead, return it to the store from where it was bought for a full refund.

“We take the safety of customers very seriously. It is a voluntary recall of one batch 8051224 of which only 107Kg was made on the 5th December 2024."

The recall notice affects all pack sizes with a best before date of April 10, 2025 and a batch code 8051224. No other Isle of Mull Cheese products are known to be affected.

Brendan Reade, a Partner at Isle of Mull Cheese, told us: "Most varieties of cheese in the world are produced are from raw milk. It has been used to preserve food for hundreds, if not thousands of years. 

"Producing raw milk cheese is tough. The cheese being recalled would have passed normal testing as no pathogens were found using agar plates.

"PCR testing discovered DNA of bacteria potentially connected with STX. This was then confirmed to be E.coli 02H27.

"The Enterobacteriaceae count was <10/g (E.coli being a subgroup). This is normally considered perfect. The legal maximum for Pasteurised cheese of E.coli is 100cfu/g.

"Cooking the cheese will totally remove any possibility of illness. We have withdrawn all Hebridean Blue cheese for further testing.”