By Pete Kennedy, Esq.

September 2021–On August 16, Alaska became the latest state to legalize the sale or distribution of raw dairy products other than milk or cheese aged sixty days when Governor Mike Dunleavy (R) signed House Bill 22 (HB 22) into law, legislation that legalizes the distribution of any raw dairy product through a shared animal (herdshare) agreement. Value-added is where the money is; states are increasingly expanding the kinds of products raw milk producers can legally sell or distribute. This past year, Montana and Texas also opened up similar opportunities for raw dairy farms.

What follows are listings of states that have legalized the sale or distribution of raw cream, butter, and yogurt through statute, regulation, written policy, or court decision. There is also a category for states that have legalized the sale or distribution of all raw dairy products including ice cream and unaged raw cheese. Federal law permits the sale of only raw cheese aged at least sixty days in interstate commerce, but there is no federal prohibition on the sale of any raw dairy product in intrastate commerce; it’s up to the states to decide that.

There are several states that appear to be allowing the sale or distribution of raw dairy products through unwritten policy; those states are not included in this list.

There are fewer reports of foodborne illness attributed to raw dairy products in recent years; with their good overall track record for safety, and the industrial food system’s decreasing reliability, it’s important to continue the expansion of raw dairy product legalization within the states to strengthen the local food supply.

States Allowing Legal Sale or Distribution of Raw Dairy Products

Each state is given a designation: “(d)” meaning only direct-to-consumer sales or distribution for human consumption is legal, or “(r)” meaning sales in retail stores are legal. In Maine’s case, “(d)” refers to the towns in the state that have legalized the unregulated sale of raw dairy products with the passage of a local food sovereignty ordinance; there is no equivalent state law in Maine. There are a few states that have legalized the unregulated sale or distribution direct to the consumer of certain raw dairy products through one law and the retail sale through another law. If products are legal in both types of transaction, the state will be designated as “(d, r).”

RAW CREAM

Alaska (d)
Arizona (r)
California (r)
Idaho (d, r)
Kansas (d)
Maine (d, r)
Michigan (d)
Minnesota (d)
Missouri (d)
Montana (d)
Nebraska (d)
New Hampshire (d, r)
New Mexico (r)
North Carolina (d)
North Dakota (d, r)
Oregon (goat & sheep only) (r)
South Dakota (d)
Tennessee (d)
Texas (d)
Utah (d, r)
Washington (r)
Wisconsin (d)
Wyoming (d)

RAW BUTTER

Alaska (d)
Arizona (r)
California (r)
Idaho (d, r)
Kansas (d)
Maine (d, r)
Michigan (d)
Montana (d)
New Hampshire (d)
North Carolina (d)
North Dakota (d)
Tennessee (d, r)
Utah (d, r)
Wyoming (d)

RAW YOGURT

Alaska (d)
Idaho (d, r)
Kansas (d)
Maine (d, r)
Montana (d)
New Hampshire (d)
North Carolina (d)
North Dakota (d)
Tennessee (d)
Texas (d)
Utah (d)
Wyoming (d)

ALL RAW DAIRY PRODUCTS(INCLUDING UNAGED RAW CHEESE)

Alaska (d)
Maine (d)
Montana (d)
North Carolina (d)
North Dakota (d)
Tennessee (d)
Utah (d)
Wyoming (d)

This article first appeared in the Winter 2021 issue of Wise Traditions in Food, Farming, and the Healing Arts, the quarterly journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation.