The Club PUBlication 05/04/2026

Push for raw milk intensifies across the U.S., despite illnesses
Backers claim health benefits while scientists warn of risky germs.
By LAURA UNGAR and JONEL ALECCIA The Associated Press

Backers of raw milk are pushing to make the potentially dangerous product more widely available and easier to obtain, even as a new disease outbreak — one of at least five in the past year — sickens U.S. children.

More than three dozen bills supporting raw milk have been introduced in statehouses across the nation, including in Minnesota, the Associated Press found. A growing number of states are making it legal to sell.

Top government officials and internet influencers are helping drive this momentum. U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. downed shots of raw milk at the White House last May and previously promised to halt "aggressive suppression" of the product. On social media, posts about raw milk have surged in recent months, often touting unproven claims about its health benefits.

All of this alarms public health officials, who have long warned that unpasteurized milk can harbor risky germs. The current outbreak — tied to raw milk cheddar cheese from California-based Raw Farm — has sickened 9 people with E. coli, half of them children under 5. One victim developed a serious complication that can impair kidney function for life.

Petra Anne Levin, a biology professor at Washington University in St. Louis, said she doesn't understand the appeal of the products.

"If you wouldn't lick a cow's udder, why would you drink raw milk?" she said. "There's a reason pasteurization is around."

Pasteurization kills germs by heating the milk, commonly to at least 161 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 15 seconds. Experts say it has no significant impact on milk's nutritional quality and has saved millions of people from foodborne illness.

But some consumers would rather drink their milk raw despite the risk. Recognizing this trend, advocates and critics alike are increasingly calling for federal regulation of the product.

Scientists and public health experts warn against drinking raw milk. Websites run by the FDA and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention point to the well-documented risks of serious illness from a host of germs, including Campylobacter, Listeria, Salmonella, and E. coli.
A CDC review counted more than 200 outbreaks tied to raw milk that sickened more than 2,600 people and sent 225 to hospitals between 1998 and 2018.

Children are especially vulnerable because their immune systems are immature and they frequently drink milk, noted Alex O'Brien, food safety and quality coordinator for the Center for Dairy Research in Madison, Wis.

Before milk standards were adopted more than a century ago, about 25% of foodborne illnesses in the U.S. were related to dairy consumption, O'Brien said. Now, dairy products account for about 1% of such illnesses.

In European and American societies of the early and mid-19th century, infant mortality rates were 30-60 times greater than today. In one example, thousands of infants died every year from a condition known as "summer diarrhea," which was primarily caused by bacterial contamination in milk that worsened in the heat.

​In Foristell, Mo., Tony Huffstutter said his family tests their milk daily for bacteria in an on-site lab at their Twisted Ash Farm & Dairy, where they keep 15 cows and sell raw milk for $29 a gallon.

"You can't just go out there, throw a bucket under the cow and start milking it," he said. "There are so many steps in doing it right."

Donald Schaffner, a Rutgers University food science professor, has serious reservations about giving raw milk to kids but he calls himself "a raw milk libertarian" when it comes to adults.

"It's kind of like legalization of weed, right?" he said. "If people want it, we should find a way to regulate it and do it safely."

Then again, he said, there's already a dependable way of making raw milk safe. "It's called pasteurization," he said. "And it works really well."