Cheese Enzyme Causes False Positive in Police Drug Test
By: Marissa Brassfield
Published: May 14, 2011

A cheese enzyme caused Antonio Hernandez to spend four days in an Asheville, North Carolina jail after state deputies believed he was carrying cocaine rather than food. During a traffic stop on May 1, a deputy used a portable drug-testing kit to test a mixture found in Hernandez's truck. It changed colors, indicating a match for illegal drugs, which led to Hernandez's arrest.
Unfortunately, the official test results that came back from the state lab found that the mixture in Hernandez's truck was actually cheese, shrimp, and tamale and tortilla dough, according to WRAL. Hernandez has been released from jail with a $400 check from the sheriff's office to cover the lost food.
In a statement to the Asheville Citizen-Times, Buncome County Sheriff Van Duncan said, "What we are going to do now is check with the manufacturers [of the drug tests] and find out what they have found can cause false positives and put that into the training with our officers."