FDA's Refusal to Enforce Raw-Milk Ban Endangers Children as Outbreaks Mount

The FDA has a clear rule on its books—21 CFR 1240.61, enacted in 1987—that bans the interstate sale of raw milk for human consumption. But as a ProPublica investigation published June 9, 2026, reveals, the agency has publicly stated it does not intend to enforce that ban. That gap between law and practice is the central failure behind the March 2026 E. coli O157:H7 outbreak tied to Raw Farm raw cheddar cheese. According to CDC data, the outbreak sickened nine people across three states (California, Texas, and Colorado), and over half of those ill were children. The CDC declared the outbreak over on April 30, 2026, and the FDA’s investigation remains open. This was not Raw Farm’s first outbreak—the company has a documented history of recalls.

This is not a story of an absent law; it is a story of an unenforced one. Raw Farm, the nation’s largest raw-milk dairy, has capitalized on political signals from HHS that relax oversight and on wellness trends like the MAHA movement. Meanwhile, small and mid-scale pasteurized dairies that follow safety protocols compete against a factory-scale operation that externalizes the costs of illness onto public health systems, especially children. The CDC report noted that over half of illnesses were in children under five. Real reform means ending the non-enforcement of 21 CFR 1240.61 by directing FDA to enforce the existing interstate ban, granting FDA mandatory recall authority for dairy products (currently the agency can only request voluntary recalls), and funding state and local health departments that are the first line of detection. Consolidation in dairy—California now houses more milk cows on mega-dairies than any other state, twice that of Wisconsin—means the biggest players profit from unsafe food while small farms face ruin. The answer is enforcement, not deregulation.