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.

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 [File photo]

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.

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

Paul Wigley, professor of avian infection and immunity at Liverpool University, said there were ‘eight or nine’ serious diseases carried by cows that can be passed on to humans.

He said: ‘Cattle carry a lot of nasty bugs. They carry E. coli 157, they can carry salmonella and they can also carry tuberculosis, the traditional risk.

‘One of the reasons for pasteurisation was controlling bovine TB from getting in humans. I’ve got a good immune system but I would not let my children drink raw milk. It’s microbiological Russian roulette.’

Raw milk sales are banned in Scotland.

In England and Wales it must be labelled with a warning and can be sold only at the farm gate or farmhouse, at farmers’ markets or directly online.