Raw milk safety alert: California finds dangerous virus in popular dairy brand
Health officials discovered H5N1 virus in raw milk products from Californiaʼs biggest non-pasteurized dairy producer. Over 400 cattle herds got infected while raw milk sales keep growing despite safety warnings
California health officials found H5N1 bird flu in raw milk from Raw Farm company which makes them remove products from stores right away. The Fresno-based producer (the states biggest raw milk maker) got caught during regular testing; consumers should throw away any bought products
The situation looks serious with bird flu affecting 402 dairy herds across the state. About 27 people got sick including a child who – for the first time in US history – caught the virus without being near sick cows. While regular milk gets heated-up to kill bad stuff raw milk can have dangerous things like salmonella; E-coli and other nasty bacteria
I drink raw farm dairy‚ and there are schools of thought that say drinking raw milk is better‚ because once you process it it makes dairy harder to tolerate
The raw milk thing got political too. Robert F Kennedy Jr‚ whoʼs gonna be Health Secretary soon says FDA is “suppressing“ raw milk. Even with H5N1 risks raw milk sales went up 20% last year – lots of wellness-fans and anti-regulation folks want it
Since late-90s raw milk caused:
* 202 disease outbreaks
* 2‚645 people got sick
* 228 ended up in hospitals
* 3 people died
Louisiana just made raw milk sales legal in Aug-24‚ with state rep Kimberly Coates saying “our citizens have the right to buy those products even though they have risks associated with them“