A California dairy farm announced a recall on its cheese linked to an E. Coli outbreak after initially declining to do so.

RAW FARM issued the voluntary recall on April 2, having withdrawn previous comments stating that the voluntary recall was "being performed under protest" and "as a path forward."

“While RAW FARM reserves its rights and disputes being the cause of this outbreak, in the interest of public health and safety, RAW FARM issues this Voluntary Recall," the company said in a statement shared on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recall.

The recall clarified that no pathogens were found in RAW FARM-brand cheese products nor "in FDA samples collected directly or samples collected by state Health Department officials." The FDA previously said there have been seven cases reported including five in California, one in Florida and one in Texas, in which individuals who ate RAW FARM's raw cheddar cheese product had been diagnosed with E. Coli, but the company denied the allegations as "false" and claiming no tests had confirmed a positive match for the E. coli strain in a post shared on its social media pages.

RAW FARM president Aaron McAfee shared a video update in March claiming recent testing showed that “100% of the results are negative” from retail including their own food safety team or the government's sampling. McAffee also told the New York Post that the farm's technicians ran 3,238 tests, specifically focused on E. coli, from September to March.

The FDA said it only "initiated" an on-site inspection last week and planned to give an update on its advisory when more information was available. The FDA had previously confirmed that no products had tested positive for E. coli but noted that state partners began collecting product samples and investigators were able to track the infections using epidemiological data.

“Epidemiologic evidence indicates that RAW FARM-brand raw cheddar cheese products made by RAW FARM, LLC are the likely source of this outbreak,” the agency said.

All three individuals interviewed claimed to have eaten RAW FARM-brand cheese, according to federal regulators, who confirmed that local officials were working to gather more details about the other four cases.

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