Dr. John Fruin, chief of the Bureau of Food and Meat Inspection for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, admitted to the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper that the state has known that Santa Rosa Cheese, Naturally Aged White Cheese, may be contaminated with E. coli bacteria.

Dr. Fruin told the newspaper that "the reason we did not put the press release out right away was because the firm was going to put out the press release and contact their buyers,” In the weeks that followed, however, “We didn’t feel the firm did an adequate job of notifying the public.”