Ballerina Farm is the newest producer of uncooked milk to halt manufacturing after experiences that its milk failed security checks. Coliform, a micro organism household that features E. coli, was present in bottles manufactured in Might and June 2025. The corporate, owned by way of life influencers Hannah and Daniel Neeleman, produces its uncooked milk, amongst different merchandise, at a small farm in Kamas, Utah, the place it additionally has a farm stand. Additionally they personal one other farm retailer in Halfway, Utah, however that location reportedly was not promoting uncooked milk.
In accordance with KPCW, Ballerina Farm needed to pause production of its raw milk after a routine well being inspection by the Utah Division of Agriculture and Meals (UDAF). This occurred just some months after it began promoting the uncooked milk on the Kamas farm stand, and a spokesperson from Ballerina Farm instructed KPCW that the farm is presently solely promoting pasteurized milk.
“Producing uncooked milk takes cautious planning from a facility and infrastructure standpoint,” Ballerina Farm mentioned in an announcement on Jan. 29, per KPCW. “Sadly, we discovered this after the actual fact.”
Nonetheless, in an announcement to People, Daniel Neeleman mentioned Ballerina Farm plans to open a second dairy farm particularly for uncooked milk merchandise. He emphasised that though coliform was detected in its uncooked milk, it nonetheless handed the day by day testing required on the market in Utah.
However that is not the solely latest information surrounding uncooked milk. On Feb. 3, the New Mexico Division of Well being released a warning urging New Mexicans to cease consuming uncooked dairy merchandise after a new child died from a Listeria an infection believed to be attributable to uncooked milk their mom consumed throughout being pregnant.
Lately, there have additionally been a number of cases of recollects of raw milk and raw pet food attributable to findings that they contained the hen flu virus.
Well being officers have lengthy mentioned that raw milk poses health risks as a result of it has not been pasteurized, a course of that makes use of warmth to kill disease-causing germs. Nonetheless, this hasn’t stopped individuals from persevering with to drink it, believing it’s “extra pure” or “more healthy” than industrial milk. We examine these claims.
Pasteurization kills disease-causing germs in milk, which is why uncooked, unpasteurized milk can pose well being threats.
What’s pasteurization?
Pasteurization is a heating course of invented within the 1860s by French chemist Louis Pasteur and has been used broadly since as a method to kill dangerous micro organism and pathogens that may generally trigger critical sickness. These include bacteria that trigger sickness, comparable to E. coli, Listeria and Salmonella, and viruses like the H5N1 bird flu.
Some dairy merchandise could also be ultra-pasteurized, which suggests milk is heated extra shortly than in typical pasteurization (2 seconds versus 15 seconds) at a better temperature, then quickly cooled. This extends its shelf life.
Pasteurized dairy merchandise could be natural or nonorganic. Whether or not you should buy or promote uncooked, unpasteurized milk depends on the laws in your state. In California, for instance, you should buy uncooked milk from shops, although it have to be properly labeled with a warning that it is unpasteurized.
Dangers of consuming unpasteurized, uncooked milk
Consuming or by accident inhaling uncooked milk that’s contaminated could result in sickness. Unwashed fingers with contaminated uncooked milk touching your eyes, nostril or mouth may additionally result in an infection.
There’s additionally the prevailing well being dangers of uncooked milk, which is not a part of what the US Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) refers to because the “industrial” milk provide.
“In my view, there is a concern with uncooked milk acquisitions which may turn into a part of the meals system, and other people safe that milk exterior of going to the grocery retailer,” Meg Schaeffer, an infectious illness epidemiologist and Nationwide Public Well being adviser on the analytics agency SAS, instructed CNET when this text was first printed in 2024.
Usually, consuming uncooked milk has well being dangers. It may expose individuals to critical diseases like E. coli and Listeria. Whereas it could trigger solely momentary or milder sickness in most individuals, individuals with weakened immune methods, older adults, those that are pregnant and really younger kids are particularly liable to critical well being results from consuming unpasteurized milk.
The danger is very excessive in kids, in response to Schaeffer, who’re susceptible to extreme sickness. In critical instances, well being results from consuming uncooked milk that is been contaminated can result in kidney failure.
Schaeffer additionally pushed again on claims that ailments that have been as soon as a big drawback in international locations just like the US, like tuberculosis, are now not a difficulty. That is true about tuberculosis, she mentioned, however we even have efficient therapy for it. That is not the case, she mentioned, for sure diseases kids can get from unpasteurized milk.
“The ailments, if something, are even stronger — antibiotic resistant,” Schaeffer mentioned, including that some micro organism that might be in uncooked milk could go undetected by farmers as a result of they do not trigger sickness in cows however do in individuals.
Whereas shopping for uncooked milk from a farm you understand units increased security requirements and practices, and “good hygiene” throughout milking can scale back the danger of contaminated uncooked milk, it won’t eliminate it, in response to the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC).
Regardless of well being considerations surrounding uncooked milk, individuals proceed to drink it for purported dietary advantages which were debunked.
Why individuals nonetheless drink uncooked milk
Proponents of uncooked or unpasteurized milk choose it for various reasons, together with its creamier texture and style, anecdotal experiences that it is simpler on digestion and claims that it is extra nutritious.
You’ll be able to’t argue with somebody’s style or texture preferences with regards to meals, however with regards to the dietary or well being advantages of uncooked milk in contrast with unpasteurized milk, analysis has pushed again on or debunked most claims. The FDA, for instance, says that raw milk isn’t a cure or antidote for lactose intolerance. The company additionally claims on the identical data page that persons are misusing the outcomes of a 2007 study on farm milk consumption, not uncooked milk consumption, providing safety towards bronchial asthma and allergy.
In an evaluation of the dangers versus advantages of uncooked milk analysis, Healthline reported that any small antimicrobial profit from uncooked milk can be neutralized when it is refrigerated. It additionally reported, primarily based on the outcomes of a 2011 systematic review, that minor nutrient losses of water-soluble nutritional vitamins, together with some B nutritional vitamins, are already low in milk usually.
“Pasteurization successfully kills uncooked milk pathogens with none vital influence on milk dietary high quality,” the CDC concludes. “Quite a few research have indicated that pasteurization has minimal influence on milk dietary high quality.”
In the event you’re searching for meals with confirmed gut health benefits, take into account including meals like kimchi, pickled greens, sourdough, apple cider vinegar and buttermilk to your food plan.
