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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] FDA Investigates Dairy Over

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  • From: "elderberryjam" <elderberryjam@zippytech.com>
  • To: <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] FDA Investigates Dairy Over
  • Date: Sun, 15 Jun 2008 20:24:27 -0400

"The point being that it is a fact that the consumption of raw milk CAN cause problems (though what's contested is how big of a threat this actually is); with cheese, however, from what I understand (please correct if wrong), any such problem does NOT exist; and, therefore, any conclusion that the sale of raw milk ALWAYS carries an end-user risk is false."

I've been following the raw milk discussions for a couple of years now, almost daily. Even aged cheese carries a very small risk. The only known U.S. illnesses caused by Listeria in the past 30-some years from a raw milk product were from some cheese imported from Mexico. The only recent deaths from listeria from any milk PRODUCED IN THE U.S. were from PASTEURIZED milk, and in fact, if you look at CDC statistics, post-pasteurization contamination has caused quite a bit more food poisoning in recent years than all raw milk. They have cultured listeria in raw milk from routine testing, but there have been no illnesses from RAW milk. Nobody seems to be able to adjust those statistics for population of use - there are only speculations made, but no scientific comparisons. Part of the reason is that they don't hold pasteurized milk to the same standards as raw, and don't have the data on it. Listeria is only one offender. Infectious e-coli seems to be the biggest offender, along with campylobacter and salmonella.

There seems to be enough evidence however to say that eating cold cuts, fresh produce and meat carries more risk of food poisoning than drinking raw milk. While some people will dispute this, many people including myself have surfed the CDC website trying to find statistics to compare, and they just aren't there. The reason is looking more and more like they aren't there because they will show a picture the FDA and USDA don't want people to know about, lest the private market swings the other way away from their regulation. Raw milk isn't quite as unsafe as they make it out to be. You take the same or more risk when you buy produce from your grocery store or eat a salami sandwitch. In fact salami was served at our lamaze class 2 years ago, not long after stillbornes were reported from it. You don't see them raiding and shutting down salami farmers and putting them in jail, and you can still buy salami in all 50 states.

Gwen




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