Artisan Cheesemaker Sued After Artist's Listeria Death

A Valentine's Day present that was intended to delight has become the focus of a six-figure legal fight in London's High Court after a death. Carina Parkes, the widow of West Sussex painter and chef Roger Parkes, has sued Wiltshire-based artisan cheesemaker the Old Cheese Room for more than $250,000, claiming its Baronet cheese caused the listeria infection that killed him in February 2023. An inquest last year found the cheese was contaminated and likely made unsafe by the company's manufacturing process, the Independent reports, and concluded Parkes died of multiorgan failure and listeria meningoencephalitis.

The Old Cheese Room is an award-winning artisan cheesemaker that uses traditional cheesemaking techniques, per the Sunday Guardian, including handmade cheeses made with milk from organic Jersey cows. The business admits the cheese sold to Parkes was tainted with listeria and was later recalled with a Food Standards Agency alert, but denies that the contamination caused Parkes' death. It maintains that Roger Parkes' preexisting health problems—including recent aortic surgery and sepsis—put him at high risk regardless.