At least seven people across three states were sickened by E. coli food poisoning linked by federal investigators to cheddar cheese made from raw milk, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Monday.
The FDA said the California-based Raw Farm produced the cheese the agency identified as the “likely source” of the outbreak, though it said no Raw Farm products tested positive for E. coli during the outbreak period. The agency said it was still working to gather information from additional cases and to determine how contamination occurred, including whether additional Raw Farm products were connected to illnesses.
Federal officials said illnesses were reported between September 2025 and mid-February. The agency reported five cases in California and one each in Florida and Texas, and it said more than half of the illnesses were in children aged 3 or younger. The FDA also said two of the people sickened by the outbreak strain were hospitalized.
The CDC urged consumers to “consider not eating” the products, in guidance aimed at reducing exposure while investigators continue their work. The FDA also recommended that Raw Farm voluntarily remove its raw cheese products from sale, according to the agency.
Raw Farm owner Mark McAfee disputed the agency’s conclusion. McAfee said he refused to recall the products because investigators had not definitively linked the cheese to the illnesses, and he argued that the outbreak announcement came too early.
“They have found no pathogens in any of our products,” McAfee said in an interview. He also disputed the FDA’s statement that the cases were genetically linked, according to the agency’s investigation.
In its own account of how investigators assessed the cluster of cases, the FDA said interviews with three people who became sick found that all three reported eating Raw Farm brand raw milk cheddar cheese. The FDA said analysis of samples from sick patients showed that the E. coli isolates responsible for the infections were closely genetically related.
Officials said the investigation remained ongoing and that they were working to gather information from four additional cases not covered in the three-case interview summary described by the FDA. The FDA said it was also determining whether other products from Raw Farm were linked to illnesses.