Released Aug. 9, 2007

AUBURN UNIVERSITY, Ala. -- The nation’s food safety experts are shocked, if not befuddled. Louis Pasteur is rolling in his grave.

Why? Because of the growing preference among thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of Americans for a product that is widely considered unsafe by the nation’s health authorities - unpasteurized milk.

Black Markets

As strange as it may seem, black markets specializing in the sale of raw milk are springing up across the country in blue and red states alike, according to one enthusiast quoted recently in The New York Times. But that’s not surprising considering that unpasteurized milk is regarded as contraband in 15 states where its sale for human consumption is illegal. Another 26 states permit restricted sale of the product.

Big Business

Contraband or not, it’s fast becoming big business, at least in the states where it is legal, particularly in California, where robust demand has garnered one company gross sales of $6 million dollars - a hefty bump from last year’s $4.9 million.

What makes raw milk so appealing? Some say it’s the richer flavor. Other’s prize it for it’s perceived nutritional wholesomeness, based on the notion - the groundless notion in the view of most food safety authorities - that it promotes strong immune responses and better digestion.

Some women even are drinking it during pregnancy. Others are serving infants and toddlers spoonfuls at a time.

Off Their Rockers

The vast majority of food safety experts believe these people are off their rockers, including Jean Weese, an Alabama Cooperative Extension System food safety specialist and Auburn University professor of nutrition and food science.

Weese is anything but the stereotype of the ivory tower academic far removed from life’s everyday realities. By her own account, she grew up a sickly kid on a farm in eastern Kentucky, drinking milk from her family’s dairy cows. Had it not been for her parents pasteurizing the milk, she doubts she would be alive today.

In fact, Weese considers pasteurized milk as one of the noteworthy scientific advances of the 20th century. And it’s hard disputing the facts: In 1938, milk was the source of 25 percent of all outbreaks of food- and water-related illnesses, according to The New York Times. Following the wholesale adoption of pasteurization, that number dropped to 1 percent in 1993.

Dirty Udders

Weese’s views are universally shared by many others in her profession. For example, Dr. David Barbano, director of the Northeast Dairy Foods Research Center, operated by Cornell University and the University of Vermont, also grew up on a family farm and, ironically, drank raw milk. But because he grew up to tell about it is no excuse for consumers to view this practice favorably.

Like Weese, Barbano, who was quoted by the Times, says a percentage of raw milk always will carry disease-causing bacteria.

“As long as I have pasteurized milk available for me, and I guess more importantly for my daughter, the risk is not worth the benefit anyone has been able to prove,” he says.

For her part, it’s the dirty udders associated with dairy cows that concern Weese most - and the reason why raw milk consumption remains such a risky undertaking.

Dairy cows are like any other livestock - they lie down wherever they please in a pasture, frequently smack on a cow patty they or other cows deposited.

In some cases, they also may wade through highly polluted streams.

Weese says its sheer illusion to assume that this filth can be completely washed off the udder before the milk is drawn.

Our own personal hygiene speaks volumes to this fact, Weese says. Hand washing studies, for example, have shown that despite our best efforts, we never succeed in removing all the pathogens that remain in the “tiny nooks and crannies” of our hands.

The challenge proves considerably more daunting with an udder covered in hair, she says.

The Vitamin D Imperative

Aside from that, raw milk also contains very little vitamin D, which, as a rule, is added to pasteurized milk. Milk has been fortified with vitamin D ever since scientists uncovered a link between deficiency in this vitamin and a debilitating disease known as rickets.

But as scientists are discovering, there are plenty of other benefits to vitamin D fortification.

“It’s good for the bones - something we’ve known for a long time,” says Robert Keith, an Alabama Cooperative Extension System nutrition and health specialist and Auburn University professor of nutrition and food science.

But as Keith stresses, that’s only the beginning. Studies also have discerned a link between vitamin D consumption and healthier immune systems. Vitamin D consumption also appears to reduce the incidence of certain types of cancer.

Barring milk fortification, there are few other sources of dietary vitamin D, aside from fatty fish - the reason Keith and other nutritionists place so much value on pasteurized milk and, particularly, the fortification that accompanies it.

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http://www.aces.edu/department/extcomm/npa/daily/archives/003219.php

Contact: Jim Langcuster, (334) 844-5686, langcjc@auburn.edu