In 1997, Washington’s Yakima Valley was the site of more than 90 cases of food poisoning caused by a strain of salmonella. The disease affected mainly children around 4 years old and 91% of the cases occurred in the Hispanic community. An investigation revealed that the culprit was soft cheese (queso fresco) homemade from unpasteurized milk.
WSU Cooperative Extension faculty Theo Thomas and Val Hillers learned of an alternative recipe using pasteurized milk. The recipe was modified to increase its safety and improve the storage and ease of preparation. The WSU-modified recipe was tested and found acceptable to the Hispanic community. Thomas worked with two EFNEP nutrition assistants in Yakima County, Frances Herrera and Anna Zaragoza, to start a program teaching volunteer Abuelas (respected older women) how to prepare the new recipe. A publicity campaign informed area consumers of the danger of eating the cheese made from unpasteurized milk and publicized the new recipe. As a result, salmonella infection caused by the unpasteurized cheese in the Yakima Valley dropped from the 90 cases in 1997 to just two in 1998. The project has been expanded to Adams, Benton, Chelan, Douglas, Franklin, and Grant counties.
Two years after the initial training of the Abuela educators, salmonella infections linked to eating queso fresco made with raw milk began to increase again in Yakima County. Thomas and Hillers are preparing a videotape that demonstrates the process of making queso fresco with the WSU-modified recipe and safe cheese workshops are again being held in the Yakima Valley.
Representatives from the WSU food science and human nutrition department, the Washington State Department of Agriculture and WSU Cooperative Extension Douglas County Extension Educator Margaret Viebrock have met with a group of individuals who are interested in becoming licensed producers of queso fresco.
The project team was composed of Cooperative Extension faculty and staff from Douglas, Grant and Yakima counties; College of Agriculture and Home Economics teaching & Extension faculty, staff and graduate students from the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition; employees of the Washington State Department of Agriculture; a WSU professor of foreign languages, and a Yakima Hispanic grandmother.
This project has received multiple honors, including: the Honor Award for public service from the United States Department of Agriculture, an award from Washington Governor Gary Locke, as a project that is helping to improve the quality of life in Washington State, and the first ever Dannon Institute Award for Excellence in Community Nutrition.
