Drinking raw milk – championed by the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow – has led to a dangerous rise in food poisoning

It is a trend championed by celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow. But drinking raw milk has led to a dangerous rise in food poisoning – including two deaths, experts warn.

Public Health England has looked at diseases passed from animals to people in 2017. 

It reports that the rapidly growing trend for drinking unpasteurised milk and cheese caused the death of a child and one adult in the UK last year.

It also led to four food poisoning outbreaks in 2017, one of which affected 69 people.

A child fed raw milk in Wales died from a type of E. coli poisoning, while a man died of listeriosis after eating cheese made with raw milk. 

Unlike pasteurised milk, which is heat-treated to kill bacteria, raw milk can harbour dangerous germs.

The report said the number of raw dairy milk producers had risen by around 60 per cent in four years to 168 at the start of 2018.

In 2017, a farm selling raw milk led to ten confirmed cases of STEC – Shiga-toxin E. coli – the first such outbreak in England and Wales for three years

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