Fungus Strain in Recalled Chobani Yogurt More Dangerous than Assumed

A fungus strain in Chobani yogurt, because of which several people in U.S. fell sick, was more dangerous than the company acknowledged during the recall, a new study has revealed.

Last year, Chobani had recalled its Greek yogurt after customers complained of gastrointestinal (GI) problems. The tainted yogurt was manufactured at Chobani's Idaho plant and was believed to be contaminated by the fungus called Murcor circinelloides.

M. circinelloides causes illness only in people with weak immune systems. However, healthy people also fell ill after consuming the yogurt, suggesting that the mold outbreak wasn't as harmless as Chobani stated it as.

"When he heard about the Chobani recall after reports of people becoming sick from yogurt contaminated with Mucor circinelloides, we thought the M. circinelloides strain could cause more serious problems than one might think." said Soo Chan Lee of Duke University, an author on the study, according to a news release.

For the study, researchers isolated a strain of the fungus from a recalled yogurt container. The team used a technique called multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) and identified the strain as Mucor circinelloides f. circinelloides (Mcc). The strain that the team found is capable of causing an infection in humans.

The team also found that the new fungus subspecies could produce harmful metabolites.

Researchers then infected mice models with MCC and found that the fungus, when injected into the bloodstream, caused lethal infection in test models.

"When people think about food-borne pathogens, normally they list bacteria, viruses, and maybe parasites. Fungal pathogens are not considered as food-borne pathogens. However, this incidence indicates that we need to pay more attention to fungi. Fungal pathogens can threaten our health systems as food-borne pathogens" said Lee in a news release.

Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulukaya had said in 2013 that the mold problem in its Greek yogurt was "totally fixed." He added that the company doesn't use preservatives in its products, which led to the mold becoming a problem, according to USA Today.

The study is published in the journal mBio.