Ballerina Farm is the latest manufacturer of raw milk to halt production after reports that its milk failed safety tests. Coliform, a bacteria family that includes E. coli, was found in bottles manufactured in May and June 2025. The company, owned by lifestyle influencers Hannah and Daniel Neeleman, produces its raw milk, among other products, at a small farm in Kamas, Utah, where it also has a farm stand. They also own another farm store in Midway, Utah, but that location reportedly was not selling raw milk.
According to KPCW, Ballerina Farm had to pause production of its raw milk after a routine health inspection by the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food. This occurred just a few months after it started selling the raw milk at the Kamas farm stand, and a spokesperson from Ballerina Farm told KPCW that the farm is currently only selling pasteurized milk.
“Producing raw milk takes careful planning from a facility and infrastructure standpoint,” Ballerina Farm said in a statement on Jan. 29, per KPCW. “Unfortunately, we learned this after the fact.”
However, in a statement to People, Daniel Neeleman said Ballerina Farm plans to open a second dairy farm specifically for raw milk products. He emphasized that although coliform was detected in its raw milk, it still passed the daily testing required for sale in Utah.
But that isn't the only recent news surrounding raw milk. On Tuesday, the New Mexico Department of Health released a warning urging New Mexicans to stop consuming raw dairy products after a newborn died from a listeria infection believed to be caused by raw milk their mother consumed during pregnancy.
In recent years, there have also been multiple instances of recalls of raw milk and raw pet food due to findings that they contained the bird flu virus.
Health officials have long said that raw milk poses health risks because it has not been pasteurized, a process that uses heat to kill disease-causing germs. However, this hasn't stopped people from continuing to drink it, believing it is "more natural" or "healthier" than commercial milk. We investigate these claims.
Pasteurization kills disease-causing germs in milk, which is why raw, unpasteurized milk can pose health threats.
What is pasteurization?
Pasteurization is a heating process invented in the 1860s by French chemist Louis Pasteur and has been used widely since as a means to kill harmful bacteria and pathogens that can sometimes cause serious illness. These include bacteria that cause illness, such as E. coli, Listeria and Salmonella, and viruses like the H5N1 bird flu.
Some dairy products may be ultra-pasteurized, which means milk is heated more quickly than in typical pasteurization (2 seconds versus 15 seconds) at a higher temperature, then rapidly cooled. This extends its shelf life.
Pasteurized dairy products can be organic or nonorganic. Whether you can buy or sell raw, unpasteurized milk depends on the laws in your state. In California, for example, you can buy raw milk from stores, though it must be properly labeled with a warning that it's unpasteurized.
Risks of drinking unpasteurized, raw milk
Drinking or accidentally inhaling raw milk that is contaminated may lead to illness. Unwashed hands with contaminated raw milk touching your eyes, nose or mouth may also lead to infection.
There's also the existing health risks of raw milk, which isn't part of what the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) refers to as the "commercial" milk supply.
"In my opinion, there's a concern with raw milk acquisitions which can become part of the food system, and people secure that milk outside of going to the grocery store," Meg Schaeffer, an infectious disease epidemiologist and National Public Health adviser at the analytics firm SAS, told CNET when this article was first published in 2024.
In general, drinking raw milk has health risks. It can expose people to serious illnesses like E. coli and Listeria. While it may cause only temporary or milder illness in most people, people with weakened immune systems, older adults, those who are pregnant and very young children are especially at risk of serious health effects from drinking unpasteurized milk.
The risk is especially high in children, according to Schaeffer, who are vulnerable to severe illness. In serious cases, health effects from drinking raw milk that's been contaminated can lead to kidney failure.
Schaeffer also pushed back on claims that diseases that were once a significant problem in countries like the US, like tuberculosis, are no longer an issue. That's true about tuberculosis, she said, but we also have effective treatment for it. That's not the case, she said, for certain illnesses children can get from unpasteurized milk.
"The diseases, if anything, are even stronger -- antibiotic resistant," Schaeffer said, adding that some bacteria that could be in raw milk may go undetected by farmers because they don't cause illness in cows but do in people.
While buying raw milk from a farm you know sets higher safety standards and practices, and "good hygiene" during milking can reduce the risk of contaminated raw milk, it won't eliminate it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Despite health concerns surrounding raw milk, people continue to drink it for purported nutritional benefits that have been debunked.
Why people still drink raw milk
Proponents of raw or unpasteurized milk prefer it for various reasons, including its creamier texture and taste, anecdotal reports that it's easier on digestion and claims that it's more nutritious.
You can't argue with someone's taste or texture preferences when it comes to food, but when it comes to the nutritional or health benefits of raw milk compared with unpasteurized milk, research has pushed back on or debunked most claims. The FDA, for example, says that raw milk isn't a cure or antidote for lactose intolerance. The agency also claims on the same information page that people are misusing the results of a 2007 study on farm milk consumption, not raw milk consumption, offering protection against asthma and allergy.
In an analysis of the risks versus benefits of raw milk research, Healthline reported that any small antimicrobial benefit from raw milk would be neutralized when it's refrigerated. It also reported, based on the results of a 2011 systematic review, that minor nutrient losses of water-soluble vitamins, including some B vitamins, are already low in milk generally.
"Pasteurization effectively kills raw milk pathogens without any significant impact on milk nutritional quality," the CDC concludes. "Numerous studies have indicated that pasteurization has minimal impact on milk nutritional quality."
If you're looking for foods with proven gut health benefits, consider adding foods like kimchi, pickled vegetables, sourdough, apple cider vinegar and buttermilk to your diet.