Allegheny County health officials are advising people to discard raw milk products from a Chambersburg farm after some residents became sickened with salmonella.
Since July 1, the Allegheny County Health Department identified four residents who got sick after consuming raw milk products from the Family Cow.
Raw milk is milk that hasn’t been pasteurized to eliminate harmful bacteria. Officials warn that consuming unpasteurized dairy products raises the risk of foodborne illness.
Products include raw milk sold in pint, half-gallon, and gallon containers, along with a variety of cheeses. These items were available at the farm’s retail store in Chambersburg and through its online store, which lists six pickup locations in Allegheny County.
These locations include Green Tree, Pittsburgh Mills mall in Frazer, Ross, Sewickley, South Park Township and Swissvale.
Jennifer Fiddner, an epidemiologist at ACHD, said experts sent samples of The Family Cow products to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture for testing. Those samples tested positive for salmonella, officials said.
Dr. Brian Lamb, an internal medicine specialist at Allegheny Health Network, said raw milk is unsafe to consume.
“People shouldn’t be drinking raw milk,” Lamb said. “We came up with pasteurization over 100 years ago, and it saves lives.”
The Pennsylvania Department Agriculture has been looking into more than 70 reported salmonella infections since August 2024, officials said.
Health officials are now reinvestigating several of those reported cases to determine whether anyone consumed The Family Cow products, Fiddner said.
“We just really want to make sure that folks are discarding this product,” Fiddner said.
On the Family Cow’s website, the company asserted that they were “inspected and approved” by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. The agriculture department confirmed this Tuesday afternoon.
The Family Cow cannot sell any more products until the PDA conducts more tests, officials said.
According to the Family Cow website, each of their products was carefully packed in an ice cooler before being transported to a pick up location or sent out for delivery.
Lamb said the method of delivery isn’t the concern — it’s the milk itself.
Pasteurization, he explained, is the process of heating dairy products to eliminate harmful bacteria and pathogens before they’re consumed.
“You would never eat a piece of raw chicken,” Lamb said. “Raw milk is the same.”
Lamb said salmonella affects the gastrointestinal system, causing nausea, fever, chills, diarrhea, and vomiting.
The Family Cow declined to comment when asked for further information about the production and handling of their raw milk products.