California Food Safety Officials Recall Raw Milk for E. Coli

The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) has issued a
statewide recall and quarantine order for raw or unpasteurized milk products
implicated in five cases of E. coli O157:H7. According to CDFA, the recall
includes raw milk, raw butter, raw cream, raw colostrum, and a raw product
called “Qephor” produced by Fresno-based Organic Pastures dairy, which is
barred from selling these items “until further notice.”

“While laboratory samples of Organic Pastures raw milk have not detected E.
coli O157:H7 contamination, epidemiologic data… links [sic] the illnesses with
Organic Pastures raw milk,” states a November 15, 2011, CDFA press release
explaining that the five known cases apparently involved children whose only
common food exposure was unpasteurized milk. The agency has also started
“a complete inspection at Organic Pastures dairy—of all facets of operations,
from the cows to the bottling plant,” where the quarantine will only be lifted
once the facility meets “all sanitation requirements under the state law.”