Producer Won't Pull Cheese Linked to E.Coli Outbreak

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 made the cheese that is the "likely source" of the outbreak, according to a Food and Drug Administration notice, though no Raw Farm products have 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 and one each in Florida and Texas. More than half of the illnesses were in 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 has declined. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged consumers to "consider not eating" the products. The FDA has the power to issue mandatory recalls but it prefers for companies to voluntarily pull products, NBC News reports.
• Mark McAfee, owner of Raw Farm, said he refused to recall the products because investigators have not definitively linked them to any illnesses. "They have found no pathogens in any of our products," McAfee told the AP. He disputed the FDA's findings that the cases were genetically linked and said that the announcement of the outbreak was premature.
• McAfee is one of the nation's leading raw milk producers. He told NBC last year that he had expected to advise Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy on ways to support raw milk producers and soften the government's stance on its risks, but he hadn't heard from Kennedy since shortly after his confirmation.
• The FDA said interviews with three people who got sick found that all three reported eating Raw Farm brand raw milk cheddar cheese. Analysis of samples from sick patients showed that the E. coli isolates that caused their infections were closely genetically related, investigators found.
• Officials are working to gather information from the additional four cases. The investigation is continuing to determine the source of contamination and whether additional products are linked to illnesses.