Rule to Allow Raw Milk Sales Goes to Governor Mead

CASPER, Wyo. (AP) — A proposal to change Wyoming's food safety rules to legalize some raw milk sales is pending before Gov. Matt Mead.

The Associated Press reports that the proposed change would allow people to buy raw milk as long as they owned a share of the animal that produced it. Such arrangements, called herd shares, are currently prohibited

Direct sales of raw milk to the public would remain illegal.

The Wyoming Department of Agriculture has been working on updates to the state's food safety rules for more than a year.

Dean Finkenbinder is consumer health services manager for the Agriculture Department. He says it's possible that the new rules would allow more people to get sick from drinking unpasteurized milk, but says the public says it wants the change.