Consumers are being advised to avoid eating a batch of cheese sold at a Limerick market and a retailer in Co Clare after traces of E.coli were discovered.
The discovery was made after a member of the local community became ill and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland launched an investigation. The bacteria was found in a batch of Gouda herb cheese produced by Kilshanny Farmhouse Cheese. The product was for sale at a stall in the Limerick Milk Market and in a retailer in Co Clare.
The company was ordered by the Department of Food to withhold placing any further batches on the market.
E.coli can cause severe bloody diarrhoea and abdominal cramps, although sometimes the infection causes non-bloody diarrhoea or has no symptoms.
In some groups, particularly children under five years of age and the elderly, the infection can also cause a complication called haemolytic uraemic syndrome, in which the red blood cells are destroyed and the kidneys fail.
The FSAI is continuing its investigation.