Ballerina Farm, the Wasatch-Back dairy and social media brand run by Hannah and Daniel Neeleman, quietly halted raw milk sales after state testing last summer showed elevated coliform levels. Now, a slate of bills at the Utah Legislature could scale back routine oversight of raw milk and, in some cases, treat it more like a homemade food than a regulated commodity. The fight has lined up public health officials who warn about serious pathogens in unpasteurized milk against producers and small sellers who say the current permitting system is too heavy for small operations.
Coverage of the failed tests, first obtained by KPCW and then picked up nationally, helped push the issue into the statehouse spotlight. As reported by Axios, that attention landed just as three bills began moving through legislative committees that would change who inspects, tests, and recalls raw milk. KPCW records show the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food logged failed coliform tests in late May and early June 2025, and that the farm paused on-premise raw milk sales after those results.
What the bills would change
H.B. 179 would scrap the state’s raw milk permit requirement and replace it with a simple notification system, while also allowing producers to test their own milk without any obligation to share those results with the state, according to the bill text posted by the Utah Legislature. S.B. 217 would classify raw milk as a “homemade food product,” which would effectively move it outside the state’s routine oversight, per its page on the Utah Legislature. A separate H.B. 283, tracked on LegiScan, would allow third-party resale of raw milk while increasing penalties for safety violations.
Health officials' warnings and research context
Public health officials told lawmakers that relaxing oversight could make it harder to keep contaminated milk off store shelves and farm stands. The Utah Department of Health and Human Services has warned of greatly elevated infection risks from raw milk, according to reporting by Axios. The Utah Department of Agriculture and Food says its current rules require routine sampling and state-run testing, and that any milk exceeding bacterial limits cannot enter commerce and must be recalled or thrown out, based on the department’s guidance.
At the national level, a 2022 legal-epidemiology analysis found that jurisdictions allowing retail sales of unpasteurized milk had about 3.6 times more outbreaks than those that limited sales to on-farm purchases. Supporters of the bills and their critics both cited that comparison during hearings, each claiming it backed their side of the argument.
Where the bills go from here
Legislative trackers show H.B. 179 received a unanimous favorable recommendation in committee and is now moving on the House calendar, with roll calls and recent actions listed on LegiScan. H.B. 283 and S.B. 217 are still winding through committees and could be amended, merged, or dropped before the session wraps.
In a statement to KPCW, Ballerina Farm said, “Producing raw milk takes careful planning from a facility and infrastructure standpoint,” and that it will stick with pasteurized products until it can build a dairy specifically designed for raw milk production. For now, the question of who keeps watch over Utah’s milk supply, regulators or producers, will be decided in committee rooms and floor debates and, eventually, in how Utahns buy their dairy from farm stands and grocery coolers.
