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"Do you sample food products passed out a grocery stores? Sometimes I&amp;#x27;ll partake, but I usually steer clear of the help-yourself-with-a-toothpick cheese plates. It just seems unsanitary! And now my suspicions are confirmed after a multi-state outbreak of E. coli, blamed on free samples of cheese at a major food retailer ... The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a recent warning of a multistate outbreak of E. coli. The culprit? Cheese samples offered at various Costco Warehouses. Details on the tainted cheese from the CDC: &amp;quot;Bravo Farms Dutch Style Gouda Cheese (Costco Item 40654) manufactured by Bravo Farms, Traver CA&amp;amp;#8212;was sold and offered as free samples for in-store tasting from October 5 to November 1.&amp;quot; So far, 25 people in five states have been sickened--many with bloody diarrhea and abdominal cramps (I must point out, with a grin on my face, that the news outlet that ran this story--FoodConsumer--accidentally typed &amp;quot;craps&amp;quot; for &amp;quot;cramps&amp;quot;--talk about a funny typo!). Most people recover well from E. coli, but the infection can be serious, even deadly, for the very young, elderly and those with compromised immune systems. Even though it&amp;#x27;s not clear that the cause of the outbreak was due to poor food handling, it still makes me want to avoid food samples at stores. Tell me, do you love sampling your way through a grocery store, or do you tend to avoid the freebies? More reading: *What worries you more: superbugs or bedbugs? *4 germy things that are almost gross as chewing someone else&amp;#x27;s gum *Guess which grocery bags are germier: cloth or plastic More Ways to Get Glamour Visit Shopglamour.com for cute stuff starting at just $10! Enter the latest Glamour sweepstakes! Follow us on Twitter Add us to your iGoogle homepage Photo: Thinkstock"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/health-fitness/blogs/vitamin-g/2010/11/do-you-eat-food-samples-at-gro>