Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Getty Images
Hannah Neeleman — the influencer known as Ballerina Farm on Instagram — has long been a fan of raw milk. She claims unpasteurized dairy has cleared up her skin, and she feeds her children milk straight from the udders of the family’s cows. (Apparently, she strains the dirt out first.) In fact, she and her husband Daniel are so passionate about raw-milk products that they decided to buy a truckload of Jersey cows and start their own dairy. Last year, they opened a roadside farm stand, which they marketed as Utah’s premier destination for all your raw-milk needs.
But it sounds like it didn’t take long for the realities of basic food safety to derail their plans. According to a new report from KPCW, shortly after the Neelemans opened their farm stand, the farm’s raw milk failed two safety tests. KPCW reviewed records from the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food and found that samples tested in May and June had high levels of coliform, the family of bacteria that includes E. coli. That’s not exactly shocking, given that the CDC has long advised against consuming raw milk, since it is far more likely than pasteurized milk to contain pathogens that will make you sick.
Thankfully, it was enough for the Neelemans to pause their raw-milk operations. A spokesperson for Ballerina Farm told KPCW that after the tests, the company decided to sell only pasteurized-milk products at its farm stand and store. (While it’s not clear exactly when the company stopped selling raw milk, by July it was jumping in the comments to clarify that the milk in its controversial soft serve was pasteurized.) “Producing raw milk takes careful planning from a facility and infrastructure standpoint,” Daniel Neeleman said in a statement to The Cut. “Unfortunately, we learned this after the fact.” He also stressed that the State of Utah requires daily testing for raw milk products, and “any raw milk sold from our stand passed.”
But it sounds like the Neelemans haven’t completely given up. Daniel said that while “the way our dairy was built is ideal for pasteurized dairy products,” they plan to build a second dairy “made specifically for raw milk products.” Until that pans out, it looks like they’ve pivoted to selling “low temp” pasteurized cream-top whole milk. If you froth it up with some of their limited-batch Pumpkin Pie Farmer Protein, they say it’s absolutely delicious.
This post has been updated.
