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Network of raw camel milk operations spurs FDA warnings

January 9, 2017: From FoodSafetyNews:

A Saudi entrepreneur, Walid Abdul-Wahab and his Santa Monica-based Desert Farms company, with "a California-based raw milk network that stretches across the United States is on notice from the FDA to stop making illegal claims about the therapeutic benefits of unpasteurized milk, including raw camel milk."
"Among the raw milk producers affiliated with Abdul-Wahab’s Desert Farms network are several Amish dairies, including that of Sam Hosteler of Miller, MO."
"A pint of Hosteler’s raw camel milk goes for about $8. He told the Springfield, MO, News-Leader newspaper that a camel only produces about two to three gallons of milk per day, compared to the 10 gallons a dairy cows can produce."
"The Amish dairyman also told the Springfield newspaper he will abide by the federal law and stop selling raw milk to people outside Missouri. Some states, Missouri included, allow farmers to sell raw milk direct to consumers at their farms.
Apparently aware of the federal law before the FDA warning, Hosteler was included in a November 2016 article by The New Food Economy that detailed the network of Amish and Mennonite farmers supplying Abdul-Wahab’s Desert Farms network. Abdul-Wahab told CNBC in 2015 that his camel milk sells for about $8 per pint and that he had more than 100,000 customers.