9 sickened in E. coli outbreak tied to a California company’s raw milk and cheese
Mar 26, 2026, 5:02 PM
FILE - The Food and Drug Administration seal is seen at the Hubert Humphrey Building Auditorium in Washington, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
Nine people, including children, have been sickened in an expanding outbreak of E. coli food poisoning tied to raw milk and cheddar cheese made with it from Raw Farm, a Fresno, California, producer, health officials said.
Two cases in California were added Thursday to the outbreak first announced March 15, bringing the total number of ill people in that state to seven. Two others fell ill in Texas and Florida, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Over half of the illnesses are in children younger than 5. Three people were hospitalized and one developed a dangerous type of kidney infection, the CDC said.
No deaths have been reported in this outbreak.
Interest in and sales of raw milk have been rising in recent years, fueled by social media and growing support from the Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again movement. Raw milk has not been pasteurized, which kills germs like E. coli, salmonella, listeria and campylobacter.
Illnesses were confirmed from September to mid-February. Of eight people interviewed by health officials, seven reported consuming Raw Farm-brand products, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Two people in 2025 reported drinking Raw Farm milk and five people in 2026 said they ate or were served Raw Farm raw cheddar cheese.
Genetic sequencing of E. coli strains from sick people show that they are all closely related, indicating people in the outbreak “share a common source of infection,” the FDA said.
FDA officials previously advised Raw Farm to recall its raw milk cheddar cheese from stores, but the company refused. To date, no Raw Farm products have tested positive for E. coli, the agency said.
Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro and members of the Congressional Food Safety Caucus urged the FDA to use its mandatory recall authority to pull the Raw Farm products from stores. FDA officials have not said whether the agency will do so.
FDA and state health officials conducted an inspection at a Raw Farm site. The CDC has advised consumers to “consider not eating this cheese while the investigation continues.”
— The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
