Most parents know that raw oysters and undercooked hamburger carry foodborne illness risks. Fewer know that artisan raw-milk cheese — sold at farmers markets, specialty cheese shops, and natural food stores — carries its own serious risk: E. coli O157:H7 contamination that can cause a child's kidneys to fail.
During California's 2026 E. coli O157:H7 outbreak linked to raw cheddar cheese, at least one child developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) — a serious and potentially fatal kidney complication that occurs in approximately 5 to 15 percent of children infected with this specific E. coli strain. More than half of the confirmed cases in the outbreak involved children.
