E. coli linked to cheddar cheese made with raw milk sickens 7 in the US
At least seven people in three states, including young children, have been sickened by E. coli food poisoning linked to cheddar cheese made from raw milk, federal health officials said Monday.
California-based Raw Farm manufactured the cheese that is the “likely source” of the outbreak, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, although no Raw Farm products tested positive for E. coli during the outbreak period, the FDA noted.
Illnesses were reported between September 2025 and mid-February, the agency said. Five cases were reported in California, one in Florida and one in Texas. More than half of the illnesses affected children aged 3 or younger. Two people were hospitalized.
The FDA recommended that Raw Farm voluntarily remove its raw cheese products from sale, but the company refused.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has urged consumers to “consider not eating” these products.
Mark McAfee, owner of Raw Farm, said he declined to recall the products because investigators had not definitively linked them to illnesses.
“They didn’t find any pathogens in any of our products,” McAfee said in an interview. He disputed the FDA’s findings that the cases were genetically linked and said the outbreak announcement was premature.
The FDA said interviews with three people who became ill revealed that all three reported eating Raw Farm brand raw milk cheddar cheese. Analysis of samples from sick patients showed that isolates of E. coli that caused their infections were closely related genetically, investigators found.
Authorities are working to gather information on the other four cases. The investigation continues to determine the source of contamination and whether other products are linked to illnesses.
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