Cheddar cheese from California-based Raw Farm identified as ‘likely source’ of infections across multiple states
Cheese from the country’s largest raw milk distributor have been linked to a multistate E coli outbreak.
Raw cheddar cheese from the California-based company Raw Farm has been identified as the “likely source” of several E coli O157:H7 infections in California, Florida and Texas, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), PBS News reported, though no Raw Farm products have tested positive for E coli.
The bacteria strain can cause diarrhea, abdominal cramps and acute kidney failure in rare cases, leading to hospitalization and possibly death.
So far, 7 people have fallen ill between September 2025 and February. The majority of illnesses were in children aged three and younger.
You can make safe cheese from raw milk; it just has to be aged at least 60 days. This is the FDA requirement, I believe. EU, I think, has no requirement.
There are styles of cheese where you want it to be made from raw milk, because it does make a difference.
I just looked at Raw Farm’s website, and all their cheese is aged at least 60 days, which means that any contamination of the cheese is likely not due to the starting milk, but it must be from cross contamination later in the process.
Raw farms could mention the fact that their cheese is all aged long enough to be “safe” but they won’t because that would mean acknowledging that raw milk is dangerous, and that they likely have gross factories with bad sanitation procedures.