I have a question for all those people who claim that raw milk is safe, healthy, and should not be tampered with in any way.
If raw milk is safe, why did milk supplied by Forest Grove Dairy (Middlebury, IN) under a cow share program infect at least 12 people with Campylobacter this month?
If raw milk is safe, why did milk supplied by Pasture Maid Creamery (New Castle, PA) infect at least one consumer with Campylobacter this month?
If raw milk is safe, why did milk supplied by Willow Marsh Farm (Saratoga, NY) infect five consumers with Campylobacter in January?
Did I mention that Campylobacter is a bacterium that is associated with fecal contamination?
While I'm at it, let me debunk a few raw milk myths:
- Raw milk is not inherently antimicrobial, as some of its proponents claim. If it was inherently antimicrobial, raw milk would not be the source of food poisoning outbreaks.
- Raw milk and pasteurized milk both contain the same quantity of lactose. Someone who is truly lactose-intolerant would have the same difficulty digesting either raw or pasteurized milk.
- Federal and state health authorities apply the same standards of epidemiological investigation to raw milk-related cases of disease as they apply to any other foodborne outbreak investigation. If a dozen people living in at least three different counties are infected with the same strain of Campylobacter, and if that group of people all drank raw milk from the same farm or cow-share program, and if there is no other common element, then there's a darned good chance that the raw milk is the source of the infections. This is not rocket science.
If, as I suggested in my post of several days ago, there is a way to obtain the benefits of drinking raw milk without the microbiological risk associated with it, I would welcome it. I imagine that many other consumers would, too.
Until then, I'll stick to pasteurized milk.
If you would like to receive automatic email alerts for all new articles posted on eFoodAlert, please click here or submit your request using the sidebar link. Please include "subscribe eFoodAlert" in the subject line.