A recall has been issued for Cabot Creamery butter in seven US states as the product was found to be contaminated with a bacteria commonly found in fecal matter.
More than 1,700lbs of the butter is being recalled due to the product being “contaminated with elevated levels of coliform,” a bacteria found in animals’ digestive tracts and waste, according to the US Food and Drug Administration.
The subject of the voluntary recall is Cabot’s eight-ounce Extra Creamy Premium Sea Salted Butter, according to a 26 March enforcement report. The product code for the recalled butter is UPC 0 78354 62038 0, and it was distributed across seven states, including New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Maine, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Arkansas.
The Cabot butter product comes in packages containing two four-ounce sticks in cardboard shells, according to the recall notice. The potentially contaminated batch has a best-by date of 9 September 2025.
The recall is categorized as class 3, which is the least serious category and means that exposure to the product is “not likely to cause adverse health consequences,” according to the FDA. However, the agency still advises consumers to return any recalled product to the store where they purchased it or to discard it immediately.
Coliform is a family of bacteria commonly found in soil, plants, and intestinal tracts of humans and animals. It is occasionally detected in Vermont’s private water systems, according to the state’s health department. The presence of the coliform in drinking water is used to determine if it may be unsafe to drink.
While most coliform bacteria does not cause illness, some rare strains of E coli, which is a type of fecal coliform bacteria, can lead to serious illness, New York’s department of health says. Testing for coliform bacteria is considered a reasonable indication of whether other pathogenic bacteria are present.
