As interest in raw milk grows, modern data sheds delicate on solemn Salmonella outbreak

When Jackie’s 9-year-old son came down with a low-grade fever in October, she dismissed it as a typical school bug. But his illness worsened over the next few days. “His skin tone looked gray,” she said, and his near-constant diarrhea left him unable to sleep and too delicate to stand.

After two trips to the emergency room and a three-day hospital stay, he finally began to recover, said Jackie, who lives in Southern California and asked to be identified only by her first name to protect the family’s privacy. A stool test showed he had been infected with salmonella.

A public health officer asked Jackie to describe everything her son had eaten in the two weeks before he got ailing, and to provide details about the products in her refrigerator. A week later, they identified the source of his illness: unpasteurized milk from Raw Farm, a dairy producer in Fresno, California.

Jackie’s son was one of 171 people sickened and 22 hospitalized from September 2023 to March 2024 in a salmonella outbreak linked to unpasteurized milk from Raw Farm, according to the California Department of Public Health. The size of the outbreak — the largest an outbreak was reported related to unpasteurized milk for over two decades — came to delicate only after an initial count of 165 cases released last week. Previously, the latest public notifications of the size of the epidemic appeared on October 25, 2023, and included 19 cases San Diego County AND Orange County.

“This outbreak could be many times larger than the 171 reported cases,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. People don’t always go to the doctor when they’re ailing, and if they do, they may not get tested for foodborne illness or cooperate with public health investigations, he said.

Nearly 40 percent of those infected in the outbreak were younger than 5, California health officials said, with cases reported in California, Washington state, Recent Mexico, Pennsylvania and Texas. Selling unpasteurized milk that has not been heated to a temperature that would kill potentially harmful bacteria is illegal or severely restricted in nearly two dozen states. But retail sales are legal in California and a growing number of states.

Public health officials have long warned that drinking raw milk can cause foodborne illnesswhich can be fatal in uncommon cases, especially for children, the elderly, and pregnant women or those with weakened immune systems. In milder cases, it can cause symptoms such as diarrhea, stomach cramps, and vomiting. Concerns about raw milk have intensified this year due to the rapid the spread of bird flu among dairy cattle in the United States. But consumer interest in raw milk only seems to be growing — retail sales were about 35 percent higher in June of this year compared with a year earlier, according to research firm NielsenIQ.

“Drinking raw milk has always been a game of Russian roulette with health.,, said Dr. Michael Payne, a researcher at the Western Institute of Food Safety and Security at the University of California, Davis.

What is alarming, experts say, is how little society seems to understand the seriousness of these threats. a survey conducted in June among 1,031 American adultsTwenty-four percent of those surveyed believed raw milk was as sheltered or safer than pasteurized milk, while 30 percent were unsure.

Jackie knew there were risks to drinking unpasteurized milk, but she believed the lack of processing made it a healthier choice for her family. And she trusted Raw Farm, which states on its website that each tank of milk is tested for pathogens before it is bottled or produced into cheese, butter or other dairy products.

“This was the only company I would buy raw milk from because of their reputation and safety,” Jackie said. She had been a true customer of the farm for 10 years, but now she is a plaintiff in a lawsuit against Raw Farm. “It’s challenging for me to understand how this could happen.”

Raw Farm voluntarily recalled all milk and bulky cream for a week in October, and most of the salmonella outbreaks occurred in the fall. State health officials said they “found sturdy evidence linking the outbreak to Raw Farm dairy products.” Most of the people who got ailing reported eating raw milk from the dairy, and the genetic sequences of salmonella in those infected matched those in Raw Farm milk.

Aaron McAfee, president of Raw Farm, said their regular milk tank tests did not detect the salmonella that caused the outbreak. That was a “learning opportunity” that prompted the farm to improve its testing protocols, he said. The farm has about 1,600 milking cows and produces 75,000 gallons of raw milk a week, Mr. McAfee said.

“To all the families who participated in this educational experience, we apologize,” Mr. McAfee said. “The improvements we have made have significantly improved our food safety,” he added.

But experts say they are skeptical that increased testing can prevent future problems. “You can’t test to make sure your food is sheltered,” Dr. Payne said. Pathogens like salmonella may not be detectable in cows’ milk, but they can be shed in manure, which can easily contaminate milk on the farm, he said. Without pasteurization, “you’re always going to be at risk of contamination,” Dr. Payne said.

No raw milk company in the United States can guarantee it is not selling a potentially “deadly product,” Dr. Osterholm said.

People rarely hear about food recalls, which may be posted on grocery store bulletin boards or government social media accounts, said Vanessa Coffman, director of the Alliance to Stop Foodborne Illness. ‘It’s a communication failure on many fronts.’,, she said.

Raw Farm linked to multiple state outbreaks E. coli in raw cheddar cheese at the beginning of this year and in 2023 it was withdrawn raw cheddar cheese for salmonella AND raw milk for campylobacterUnder the previous name, Organic Pastures Dairy CompanyOn this farm, outbreaks of E. coli infections were recorded in 2016, 2011 AND 2006and repeated recall when Salmonella, campylobacter bacterium AND Listeria detected in their products.

Mark McAfee, founder and CEO of Raw Farm, wrote in an email that the company has had “very few cases of illness over the last 25 years.”

“The pathogens are completely natural,” he said, adding that “our consumers are trying to rebuild that relationship with the farm and the natural bugs that live there.” He also said the company’s products are labeled with warnings that they may contain pathogenic microbes because required by state law.

In 2006, then 7-year-old Christopher Martin was infected with a dangerous strain of E. coli bacteria from raw milk from Organic Pastures. He developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, a severe disease that attacks the kidneys, and was hospitalized for 56 days, said Mary McGonigle-Martin, his mother. “I made a choice that almost killed my baby,” she said.

It’s “tragic” that children are still getting ailing from raw milk from the same farm, Ms McGonigle-Martin said. “It just makes me so depressed for those families.”

Jackie’s son has fully recovered; he’s back to swimming and hanging out with friends, she said. She and her husband still believe raw milk has some health benefits. But they now buy pasteurized milk, which her son won’t drink. After his hospitalization, he lost all appetite for milk.