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SALT LAKE CITY — Raw milk, a common term for milk that doesn't go through the pasteurization process, is heavily regulated by the state because of increased health risks outlined by state and federal officials.
Producers must have a state permit to operate and farms are regularly tested for potential diseases. Their product can be sold, but not in typical grocery stores. Bottles must have warning labels and consumers must sign a waiver acknowledging the potential risks, said Rep. Cheryl Acton, R-West Jordan.
As she puts it, "You can't accidentally buy raw milk" in Utah.
But what happens if there's an outbreak of illness tied to raw milk? Acton said the state law is less clear in this scenario and she wants to change that to help producers get back up and running faster than the current process.
Acton proposed a bill that would clean up the law, introducing it during the Utah Legislature's Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment Interim Committee on Wednesday. However, state agriculture officials say they're concerned with the proposal.
Under the proposed changes, the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food can still order producers to stop selling raw milk after an outbreak, but the department would have to collect samples from the farm within two days of that order. They'd then have up to five days to use genome sequencing tests to link the product to an outbreak.
A producer would be cleared after three straight tests — all taken on different days within 10 business days — to prove the milk is pathogen-free, among some of the changes.
The potential bill is in response to concerns brought up by the owners of a West Jordan farm, which had its state-issued raw milk permit suspended for several months last year following a campylobacteriosis outbreak that Salt Lake County officials said sickened 14 people.
Shayn Bowler and Kristen Bowler, the owners of Utah Natural Meat and Milk, said they went through financial hardships because of the length of time it took the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food to reinstate their permit.
The Bowlers estimate they lost $96,000 when the suspended permit took them out of business from early August toward the end of November. They sold two-thirds of their dairy cow herd to make ends meet, which made it difficult to resume their normal production once the permit was reinstated.
"The main thing that happened to us is that we started to run out of funds," Shayn Bowler told the committee. "That became increasingly difficult to try and navigate the process of discovering with the department what was going on."
State agricultural officials say they are concerned about the newly proposed process.
Craig Buttars, director at the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, said the department doesn't use genome sequencing largely because of cost. The changes may also require patient health information the department doesn't have access to.
"It is more expensive," he said. "We do not have the funding for that and the cost would likely go to the producers."
Buttars added that some of the faster timelines outlined in the bill may not be feasible or even possible. There are other elements he says aren't clear or need adjustments, such as when testing is required and who would oversee it.
Members of the legislative committee agreed the bill is perhaps too raw to consider right now.
After listening to both sides, Sen. Scott Sandall, R-Tremonton, committee chairman, declined any discussion on the bill because he believes it's a work in progress. He joked earlier in the meeting that Acton is a "brave soul" to wade into a topic considered controversial across the country.
Advocates argue that raw milk — a term for unpasteurized milk — contains more amino acids, vitamins, minerals and other benefits than milk found on grocery store shelves, Healthline explained last year. However, since it doesn't go through pasteurization — a process of heating the milk to kill off bacteria — raw milk may contain pathogens that can cause severe illness and even death.
"Pasteurized milk offers the same nutritional benefits without the risks of raw milk consumption," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said. Unpasteurized and pasteurized milk are regulated differently because of this.
Sandall recommended Acton hash out the state's concerns and rope other major entities in the industry into the discussion to help refine the bill.
"This is not a bill file that I think we're really ready to discuss, ask questions about, or vet," he said. "This is a thorny, thorny long process of raw milk in the state. ... Without them having any input on this, this is going to be a rough thing for you to get done."
Acton accepted the feedback, saying she will reach out to more people with the hopes of having a "good consensus bill" by the next legislative session, which begins in January.
State agriculture officials reiterated Wednesday that no state testing ensures raw milk is safe to drink, but they are willing to address the concerns that prompted the proposed bill.
"We can work these things out," Buttars said. "We can make the production and sale of raw milk safe. We also want to protect the public here."
