FDA warns of outbreaks from raw milk
The Food and Drug Administration is warning the public of the hazards of drinking raw milk after at least 12 people in the Midwest have gotten sick from an outbreak of campylobacteriosis.
The infection, which can cause symptoms such as diarrhea, abdominal pain and fever, appears to be linked to raw milk from a dairy in Indiana, the FDA said in a statement.
Raw, or unpasteurized, milk carries risks of a wide variety of nasty bacteria, including E.coli, listeria and salmonella and about half of all states ban the sale of raw milk. (Maryland's among them. Although here, it's legal to drink it if you own the cow).
While most healthy people can recover quickly from the illnesses these bacteria can cause, pregnant women, the elderly, infants and people with weakened immune systems are at higher risk for complications, the FDA warns.
And yet, raw milk has faithful devotees.
Meredith Cohn wrote about the debate over raw milk in this story last year, which highlighted how those who prefer raw milk insist it's more nutritious and how a movement to make it more accessible triggered proposed legislation from Maryland lawmakers.
Elsewhere, others who object to statewide bans on raw milk sales insist that not only is it safe to drink, it might just have healing properties. Public health officials who maintain its unsafe continue to clash with advocates. The debate is heating up in statehouses and grocery stores alike. Whole Foods is pulling raw milk from its shelves in certain states, according to this WSJ piece.
Any raw milk drinkers here? Those on the other side? What do you think?
Comments
As a cheesemaker, I understand the milk science around the issue, yet I'm still not thoroughly convinced the mandated 60 days' aging for raw milk cheeses kills off all/enough pathogens. I am very very selective of whose raw milk cheeses I will eat.
Posted by: Donna Beth Joy Shapiro | March 31, 2010 9:51 AM
Hmmmm..... the FDA says aspartame (which has been linked to brain cancer and autism) is perfectly safe. Yet anytime someone sneezes after drinking raw milk, they send out sensational press releases.
Not making light of the twelve people that got sick, but come on. People all around the world have been drinking raw milk since the beginning of time.
I have 100% trust and faith in quality local farmers, with clean, healthy cows, and absolutely ZERO trust in FDA bureaucrats, who by the way are bought and paid for by a myriad of special interests, including the powerful Dairy Industry. An Industry that lobby the FDA to ban raw milk, while they push their (tax-payer) subsidized, lifeless, tasteless, factory-farmed pasteurized milk!
Posted by: Raw Milk Fan | March 31, 2010 1:36 PM
For more info about the dangers of all the other foods we eat as well as the numerous benefits of consuming raw milk please go to www.realmilk.com. On the site you will find mention of all of the food-borne illnesses that have been caused by pasteurized milk, deli meat, vegetables, and even the dreaded picnic potato salad- which by the way it is the potato and onion in the salad not the commercially prepared mayonnaise that is the culprit. I have been drinking raw milk for about a year now and have never had a problem. My mother got a hamburger the other day at a restaurant that caused her to have diarrhea and yet the FDA is not sending out warnings about meat. Just because it is not pasteurized does not mean it harbors any bad bacteria. The extraordinary sanitation upheld by most raw dairy farmers should be an example to the dairy industry who pumps their cows full of antibiotics to keep them healthy and steroids to keep them overproducing. And please don't think I am some hippie and dismiss these comments- I am just a person who believes that real food in its original nature made format is best for us- including meat right off of a pasture raised chicken or eggs from an Amish raised chicken or beef from a free range cow, or yes, the dreaded raw milk that has not been sterilized for "my protection".
Posted by: Matt | April 1, 2010 11:11 AM
@raw-milk-fan (whatever your real name is): "anytime someone sneezes after drinking raw milk"
sneezes? please re-read the article:
"at least 12 people in the Midwest have gotten sick from an outbreak of campylobacteriosis.
The infection, which can cause symptoms such as *diarrhea, abdominal pain and fever,* ..."
Posted by: john holland | July 24, 2010 12:32 PM