Once again Dr. Powell says it like it is - the truth
The unvarnished (and unpasteurized) truth
August 11, 2006
Commentary from the Food Safety Network
Dr. Douglas Powell
www.foodsafetynetwork.ca
In May, 1943, Edsel Bryant Ford, son of auto magnate Henry Ford, died
at the age of 49 in Detroit, of what some claimed was a broken heart.
Biology, however, decreed that Ford died of undulant fever, apparently
brought on by drinking unpasteurized milk from the Ford dairy herd, at
the behest of his father's mistaken belief that all things natural
must be good.
Sixty years later, raw, unpasteurized milk is gaining in popularity
for many of the same reasons as the broader organic and natural foods
movement: some people think it's healthier, some people think it
tastes better, and for some people it's part of their religion.
And some people get sick.
In June, more than 58 people in Wisconsin became ill after eating
unpasteurized cheese curds contaminated with Campylobacter jejuni. The
same bacteria sickened five people in Colorado in January after they
drank raw milk from a dairy in Larimer County, Colo. In Dec. 2005, the
Pima County Health Department in Arizona reported salmonella
contamination in unpasteurized, raw milk produced by Colorado City's
Meadowayne Dairy. The milk was sold at several natural and health food
stores in the Tucson area. Earlier last year the New York State health
department warned against consumption of some
imported Mexican cheeses made from unpasteurized milk after
identifying 35 cases from 2001 to 2004, including one infant death in
2004, attributed to Mycobacterium bovis, a form of TB found in cattle.
Additional outbreaks are listed at:
http://www.foodsafetynetwork.ca/articles/384/rawmilkoutbreaksummary.pdf
But most worrisome are outbreaks caused by contamination with E. coli O157:H7.
In Canada last April, four people including two children were were
hospitalized with bloody diarrhea and severe abdominal cramps caused
by E. coli O157:H7 after drinking raw milk purchased from the back of
a vehicle. In December 2005, 18 people including six children in
Washington state were infected with E. coli O157:H7 from drinking
unpasteurized milk. Two of the kids almost died.
While most people recover from E.coli O157:H7, up to 10 per cent of
cases go on to develop hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), which is
characterized by kidney failure. It's not fun.
Georgia Frankenberg of Ohio, a registered sanitarian, milk producer and former
connoisseur, asks, "We won't allow our children to eat raw meat, raw
eggs or -- heaven forbid -- raw poultry. Why would we allow them to
drink raw milk?"
Frankenberg ended the raw milk flow to herself and her young son
following the infamous Jack in the Box E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in
1993 which sickened 600 and killed four.
Regardless, the glowing media coverage of all things natural abounds.
Last year the Associated Press gushed, "Kelsey Kozack's kitchen is a
dairy wonderland. Fresh cheeses, yogurt and quarts of fresh raw milk
abound, all compliments of Iris, a gentle tan cow who grazes on the
family's seven-acre property." Kelsey was quoted as saying, "After
you've been drinking raw milk for a while, you can't drink
store-bought again. It has a lot more flavor and is healthier."
Tell that to the kids in hospital with a potentially fatal illness.
The various states have various rules governing the personal
consumption or sale of raw milk, all which can be circumvented. For
example, selling raw, unpasteurized milk in Ohio is illegal, but that
doesn't stop enterprising folks from selling the illicit product under
the guise of pet food.
A good rule of thumb: do not feed your children pet food.
The premiums people pay for raw milk do little to ensure a safe
product, although with regulations that establish standards for the
proper testing of milk and inspection of the farm and milk bottling
room, it may -- and that's an extremely strong may -- be possible to
offer a safe, unpasteurized product to the consuming public. But the
onus is on producers to show the rest of us that data.
Adults, do whatever you think works, but please, don't impose your
dietary regimes on your kids.
Dr. Douglas Powell is scientific director of the Food Safety Network
at Kansas State University.
