Italian boy Mattia Maestri dies at 13 after nine years in vegetative state from raw-milk cheese infection

Mattia Maestri, a 13-year-old boy from Coredo in Italy's Trentino province, died on 2 August 2026 after spending nine years in a permanent vegetative state. His condition was caused by a severe Escherichia coli infection contracted in 2017 when, at the age of four, he ate a raw-milk cheese contaminated with the Shiga toxin-producing bacterium (STEC).

The announcement and the family's response

The news was made public by his father, Giovanni Battista Maestri, through the local daily Il T.

Our Mattia has left us, and on his behalf I thank you for helping to make his passing less painful.

Over the years, the father transformed personal tragedy into public advocacy. He founded a consumer association dedicated to raising awareness of the risks connected to intrinsically dangerous food products. He also authored a book, "La verità sui pericoli dei formaggi a latte non pastorizzato" ("The truth about the dangers of unpasteurised-milk cheeses"), which was presented at the Italian Senate in recent months.

I wrote it in twenty days, but it is the result of years of battles.

On labelling, he has argued that parents should be able to weigh the risk for themselves.

If a parent wants to take the risk, they must be able to do so knowingly. Clear communication is needed, like that on cigarette packets.

He also directed sharp criticism at political inaction.

In Trentino they defend brands and image, but not enough is done for children.

The legal case

The judicial process concluded with a definitive ruling from Italy's Court of Cassation, which confirmed the causal link between the contaminated product and the serious injuries suffered by the child. On 5 March 2025 the court ruled the two defendants' appeals inadmissible, making final the convictions for very serious negligent personal injury of Lorenzo Biasi, then president of the Caseificio Sociale di Coredo, and the cheesemaker Gianluca Fornasari. Both were convicted at first instance in December 2023; the Trento appeal court confirmed the verdicts in July 2024 and set a provisional award of one million euro. The cheese, sold under the name Due Laghi, was eaten on 5 June 2017.

The wider safety debate

Mattia's death has reignited a debate that has long divided doctors, producers, and institutions. His father consistently called for a ban on selling medium- and short-aged raw-milk cheeses to children under ten, which he says already applies in other European countries. No European country is known to prohibit such sales by law. France, the case usually cited, issued a health-authority recommendation in 2020 that children under five should not eat raw milk or raw-milk cheeses, together with a warning-label requirement.

A related case saw the death on 21 May 2024 of another child, three-year-old Elia Damonte from Arenzano in Liguria, who also contracted Haemolytic Uraemic Syndrome (HUS) after consuming a contaminated raw-milk product. His parents say they are seeking clear labelling rather than bans. Elia's parents recently appeared before the Senate to push for the approval of a draft law, prepared with the association "Il Trenino di Elia" and presented by Senator Lorenzo Basso, which would make clearer and immediately visible labelling mandatory on raw-milk dairy products. The proposed legislation has stalled for two years without being examined.

The medical mechanism

Unlike pasteurised products, raw-milk cheeses use milk that undergoes no heat treatment before processing. The bacterium responsible is a specific strain of Escherichia coli that produces Shiga toxin (STEC). It can develop in the intestines of animals and contaminate water, soil, and raw or undercooked foods. While healthy adults often experience only a simple gastroenteritis, in more vulnerable individuals (children under five, the elderly, and the immunocompromised) the infection can trigger Haemolytic Uraemic Syndrome, a potentially fatal complication that damages the kidneys and nervous system. In Mattia's case, the 2017 infection caused irreversible neurological damage.