Pride & Joy Dairy refuses WSDA raw milk recall request

Pride & Joy Dairy "Organic Grade A Grass Fed Raw Cow's Milk" tested positive for Salmonella during routine testing.

Dairy owners Allen and Cheryl Voortman declined to issue a recall of raw milk produced from September 13 up to present.

However, they later asked stores to pull any milk dated October 4 for a full credit but said they would be continuing production as normal.

A milk sample collected from the farm on September 18 tested positive; the sample taken was from milk produced on September 13 and 14.

The firm said nearly all the milk produced on September 13-14 has been consumed and there have been no complaints to WSDA or the dairy.

Typical incubation period of Salmonella is 12-72 hours.

In February this year the dairy issued a recall of organic retail raw fluid milk due to E. coli that resulted in a shutdown lasting nearly three months.

WSDA said at the time that product testing revealed the presence of toxin-producing E. coli.

Pride & Joy said it will continue to monitor its milk quality and has requested information from WSDA including the type of test used to determine the positive sample and its chain of custody.

The dairy said it independently tests every batch by two labs before milk leaves the farm.

WSDA found the pathogen in bottled organic retail raw milk from the dairy in Toppenish with a best-by date of 4 October.

The company sells products in pint, quart, half-gallon and one-gallon plastic containers.

Retail raw milk is legal to sell and buy in Washington but contains a warning label.

• This article was updated to reflect Pride & Joy's decision to remove milk dated October 4 from the market.