Ballerina Farm is the newest producer of uncooked milk to halt manufacturing after studies 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. In addition they personal one other farm retailer in Halfway, Utah, however that location reportedly was not promoting uncooked milk.
In keeping 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 only a few months after it began promoting the uncooked milk on the Kamas farm stand, and a spokesperson from Ballerina Farm advised KPCW that the farm is at present 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 realized this after the actual fact.”
Nevertheless, 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 every day testing required on the market in Utah.
However that is not the solely current 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.
In recent times, there have additionally been a number of situations of remembers of raw milk and raw pet food as a consequence of findings that they contained the chicken 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. Nevertheless, 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 way 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 implies milk is heated extra shortly than in typical pasteurization (2 seconds versus 15 seconds) at the next temperature, then quickly cooled. This extends its shelf life.
Pasteurized dairy merchandise could be natural or nonorganic. Whether or not you should purchase or promote uncooked, unpasteurized milk depends on the laws in your state. In California, for instance, you should purchase uncooked milk from shops, although it should be properly labeled with a warning that it is unpasteurized.
Dangers of ingesting unpasteurized, uncooked milk
Consuming or by accident inhaling uncooked milk that’s contaminated might result in sickness. Unwashed fingers with contaminated uncooked milk touching your eyes, nostril or mouth can also result in an infection.
There’s additionally the present 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.
“For my part, there is a concern with uncooked milk acquisitions which may develop into a part of the meals system, and other people safe that milk outdoors of going to the grocery retailer,” Meg Schaeffer, an infectious illness epidemiologist and Nationwide Public Well being adviser on the analytics agency SAS, advised CNET when this text was first printed in 2024.
On the whole, ingesting uncooked milk has well being dangers. It could possibly expose individuals to critical sicknesses like E. coli and Listeria. Whereas it could trigger solely non permanent or milder sickness in most individuals, individuals with weakened immune programs, older adults, those that are pregnant and really younger kids are particularly liable to critical well being results from ingesting unpasteurized milk.
The chance is very excessive in kids, in accordance with Schaeffer, who’re susceptible to extreme sickness. In critical instances, well being results from ingesting 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 downside in nations just like the US, like tuberculosis, are now not a difficulty. That is true about tuberculosis, she mentioned, however we even have efficient remedy for it. That is not the case, she mentioned, for sure sicknesses kids can get from unpasteurized milk.
“The ailments, if something, are even stronger — antibiotic resistant,” Schaeffer mentioned, including that some micro organism that could possibly be in uncooked milk might 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 realize units greater security requirements and practices, and “good hygiene” throughout milking can scale back the chance of contaminated uncooked milk, it won’t eliminate it, in accordance with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC).
Regardless of well being issues 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 favor it for various reasons, together with its creamier texture and style, anecdotal studies 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 in relation to meals, however in relation 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 individuals are misusing the outcomes of a 2007 study on farm milk consumption, not uncooked milk consumption, providing safety in opposition to 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 important 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.”
Should you’re on the lookout for meals with confirmed gut health benefits, think about including meals like kimchi, pickled greens, sourdough, apple cider vinegar and buttermilk to your weight loss plan.
