Raw milk sold by Florida farm sickens 21 people

Florida health officials on Monday issued a warning about drinking unpasteurized raw milk after it sickened 21 people, seven of whom were hospitalized.

Pasteurization is a heat treatment that destroys bacteria in milk. The 21 people, living in northeastern and central Florida, got ill from unpasteurized milk from a single farm that contained the disease-causing bacteria Campylobacter and Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, the Florida Department of Health said. 

Six of the sickened people were kids younger than 10. The seven hospitalized included two who suffered more severe symptoms, Florida health officials said. The name of the farm was not provided.

Campylobacter causes diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, stomach cramps, fever and complications that can include irritable bowel syndrome, Guillain-Barré syndrome and arthritis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Shiga toxin-producing E. coli causes diarrhea, stomach cramps, fever and hemolytic uremic syndrome, which can lead to kidney failure, permanent health problems and death, according to the CDC.

In Florida, it’s illegal to sell raw milk for human consumption. Containers of raw milk for sale must have labels declaring that it’s for “animal consumption” only, Florida health officials said.

“Everybody knows that they’re selling it for human consumption,” University of Florida food safety professor Keith Schneider told The Associated Press, adding that people getting sick from raw milk is “not a question of if, but when.”

Raw milk drinkers cite its taste and purported positive health effects in terms of allergies and asthma as reasons to drink it over pasteurized milk, Florida health officials said.

The Food and Drug Administration says raw milk’s association with curing or treating asthma and allergies is inaccurate.