Raw milk outbreak sickens 14 in Utah—a state with loose laws, bad track record

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At least 14 people in Utah have been sickened with a serious gastrointestinal infection after drinking “raw,” unpasteurized milk, the Salt Lake County Health Department reported this week.

Raw milk outbreaks are not uncommon in Utah, which has some of the more permissive laws regarding the sale and distribution of unpasteurized milk in the country—and an unenviable record of outbreaks. Retail sales of raw milk are legal in Utah and, in 2015, the state passed a law expressly allowing herd-share programs. In these programs people pay for a share of an animal or herd and are thereby entitled to a portion of the unpasteurized milk produced.

In a 2022 study, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that Utah had the largest number of single-state raw milk outbreaks of any other state between 2012 and 2019. In that timeframe, Utah saw 14 outbreaks. The next-closest state was Pennsylvania, with nine outbreaks.