Unpasteurized dairy products are milk, cheese, yogurt, butter, and other dairy foods made from milk that has never been heated to kill harmful bacteria. You’ll also see them labeled as “raw” dairy. Pasteurization, the heating process they skip, was developed in 1864 and remains the standard safety step in commercial dairy production. Understanding what makes these products different comes down to what pasteurization removes and what raw dairy retains.
How Pasteurization Works
Pasteurization heats milk to a specific temperature for a set period of time, killing bacteria responsible for diseases like listeriosis, typhoid fever, tuberculosis, and brucellosis. The most common method heats milk to about 161°F (72°C) for 15 seconds. When a dairy product is labeled “unpasteurized” or “raw,” it means the milk used to make it never went through this step. Raw milk can come from cows, goats, sheep, or any other dairy animal.
What Raw Dairy Products Include
Milk sold straight from the farm is the most obvious example, but the category is broader than that. Unpasteurized dairy includes soft and hard cheeses, butter, cream, ice cream, kefir, and yogurt made with milk that was never heat-treated. Some of these products, particularly aged cheeses, have their own safety rules. In the United States, cheese made from raw milk must be aged for a minimum of 60 days before sale, a requirement designed to let salt, acidity, and time reduce pathogen levels. Many famous European cheeses, including certain varieties of Gruyère, Comté, and Roquefort, are traditionally made with raw milk and rely on this aging process.
Bacteria in Raw Milk
The core safety concern with unpasteurized dairy is bacterial contamination. Raw milk can harbor Campylobacter, Salmonella, E. coli O157:H7, and Listeria monocytogenes, among other pathogens. These organisms come from the animal’s udder, skin, or environment and enter the milk during collection. Even on clean, well-managed farms, contamination can occur because the bacteria live naturally in healthy animals.
Symptoms of infection from these bacteria typically include diarrhea, stomach cramps, and fever. But some infections turn severe. Campylobacter can trigger Guillain-Barré syndrome, a neurological condition that may require prolonged hospitalization. E. coli O157:H7 can cause acute kidney failure, particularly in children and older adults. Listeria infection during pregnancy can lead to miscarriage or fetal death.
Between 1998 and 2008, the CDC documented 85 outbreaks linked to raw milk or raw milk cheese, resulting in 1,614 reported illnesses, 187 hospitalizations, and 2 deaths. In California alone, four confirmed and three suspected outbreaks have been linked to raw milk since 2012, while no outbreaks from pasteurized milk occurred during the same period. One particularly devastating 1985 outbreak of Listeria from Mexican-style raw milk cheese affected 142 people and killed 48, including 30 fetuses and newborns.
Who Faces the Greatest Risk
Certain groups are far more vulnerable to the bacteria found in raw dairy. California requires a warning label on all unpasteurized products listing the highest-risk populations: newborns and infants, the elderly, pregnant women, people taking corticosteroids or antibiotics or antacids, and anyone with a weakened immune system or chronic illness. For these groups, what might cause a few days of diarrhea in a healthy adult can lead to hospitalization or death.
Children are especially at risk for kidney failure from E. coli infections. A 2006 California outbreak sickened six children, hospitalizing three, two of whom developed kidney failure. Pregnant women face the added danger of Listeria crossing the placenta, making raw soft cheeses one of the most commonly flagged foods during pregnancy.
Nutritional Differences
Advocates for raw dairy often claim it’s more nutritious than pasteurized milk. There is some truth to the idea that heat affects certain vitamins, but the scale of those changes matters. A systematic review and meta-analysis of published studies found that pasteurization significantly reduces levels of vitamins B1, B2, C, and folate. Vitamins B12 and E also decreased, while vitamin A actually increased after pasteurization. Vitamin B6 showed no significant change.
In practical terms, these losses are modest because milk is not a primary dietary source of most of the affected vitamins. You get far more vitamin C from a single orange than from a glass of milk, raw or pasteurized. The nutrients milk is best known for, calcium, protein, and vitamin D (which is added after pasteurization anyway), are not meaningfully affected by the heating process. The nutritional trade-off is real but small, and it doesn’t offset the infection risk for most people.
Legal Status in the United States
Federal law prohibits the interstate sale of raw milk for human consumption, but states set their own rules for sales within their borders. The legal landscape breaks into several categories. Some states allow raw milk to be sold in retail stores alongside pasteurized products. Others permit farm-to-consumer sales only, meaning you have to buy directly from the farmer. A number of states allow herdshare agreements, where consumers buy a share of a cow or goat and receive a portion of its milk, sidestepping traditional sales regulations. A handful of states have no law addressing herdshares at all, creating a legal gray area. And in a few states, raw milk cannot be legally obtained in any way for human consumption, though it may be sold as pet food.
The patchwork of regulations means your access to raw dairy depends entirely on where you live. States that do allow sales often impose strict production standards. California, for example, requires raw milk to contain no more than 15,000 bacteria per milliliter and no more than 10 coliform bacteria per milliliter at the point of sale, the same limits applied to pasteurized milk. Raw milk producers in the state also face monthly pathogen testing by agriculture officials, on top of meeting all the sanitary requirements that apply to conventional dairy farms.
Why People Choose Raw Dairy
Despite the risks, raw dairy has a dedicated consumer base. Some people prefer the taste, which can be richer and more complex than pasteurized milk, varying with the animal’s breed, diet, and the season. Others are drawn to the idea of minimal processing or believe raw milk contains beneficial enzymes and bacteria that pasteurization destroys. Some proponents claim raw dairy helps with allergies, asthma, or lactose intolerance, though these claims lack strong clinical evidence.
For consumers who choose raw dairy, sourcing matters enormously. Buying from a farm with transparent testing, low bacterial counts, and healthy animals reduces risk, though it doesn’t eliminate it. Keeping raw milk refrigerated below 40°F and consuming it quickly also limits bacterial growth. Raw milk ages faster than pasteurized milk precisely because the bacteria in it are still active.