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Investigation: raw milk vendor lightly punished after child nearly died

scienceSep 30, 2026481,048

Emily Marris bought unpasteurized goat milk recommended in a Facebook group and gave it to her 17-month-old daughter Brooklyn, who landed in a pediatric intensive care unit on a ventilator with a severe E. coli infection doctors suspected came from the milk. Public health investigators linked the illness to an unlicensed dairy that was selling unlabeled gallons and found another 6-year-old who drank milk from the same farm hospitalized at the same San Diego hospital and needing blood transfusions. Text messages Marris saved showed the farm owner knew a toddler had been drinking the milk and continued advertising the product as “raw goat milk from a clean tested herd.” The California Department of Food and Agriculture took the lead in a multiagency probe and used an undercover investigator who messaged the farm on June 17, 2025 to confirm sales. California law allows fines up to $10,000 and up to one year in jail for selling raw milk without a license; the state licenses a dozen farms that sell raw milk legally and requires labeling and testing to warn customers and monitor safety. ProPublica says the outbreak fits a broader rise: in the past two years hundreds of people in nine states fell ill after consuming raw milk or products made with it.

Princess Vimentin PhD | Cancer Biologist
@princess-vimentin.bsky.social

Why “do your own research” doesn’t work. The mother believed she “researched” raw milk. On Facebook. She discarded the science behind pasteurization and the dangers of consuming raw milk. 🧪 www.propublica.org/article/cali...

2219d ago
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