RAW MILK:

1
RAW MILK

• Hazardous or Healthy?

Hazardous or Healthy?
By Michelle Lancaster Final Project for ENMT 321
- Environmental Health Professor Page - UMUC
2
Historical Context

• Pasteurization became mandatory in 1917 for milk
• from cows NOT tested free of Tuberculosis
• Used to combat poor sanitary conditions on some
  farms
• By mid-1900s, pasteurization became the norm
• Meanwhile, a group of people kept drinking
• un-pasteurized milk /milk products,
• commonly referred to as raw milk products,
• much to the consternation of the government.

3
Potential human health concerns

• Potential of passing disease from animal to
  human
• Examples
• Bovine Tuberculosis (modern testing very few
  cases today)
• Brucellosis (Government vaccination program
  essentially eradicated)
• Johnes (Survives pasteurization, so moot point)
• Other bacteria from improper handling/cleanliness
  such as Campylobacter, Salmonella, Listeria, or
  E coli
• (Keep reading to find out more about the last
  group)

4
Factors in Favor of Raw Milk

• Building immunity to bacteria is safer than
  trying to avoid the unavoidable
• Summary Evidence suggests that
• frequent and direct exposure to domestic
  animals
• has made farmers less
  susceptible
• to symptomatic Escherichia coli O157
  infection
• than other members of the
  community.

From Quilliam, R. S., Chalmers, R. M., Williams,
A. P., Chart, H., Willshaw, G. A., Kench, S. M.,
Edwards-Jones, G., Evans, J., Thomas, D. Rh.,
Salmon, R. L., Jones, D. L. Seroprevalence and
Risk Factors Associated with Escherichia coli
O157 in a Farming Population. Zoonoses Public
Health Mar2012, Vol. 59 Issue 2, p83-88, 6p
Retrieved through UMUC Library Database
5
Factors in Favor of Raw Milk

• Raw milk decreases allergic symptoms
• A study of school aged children
• reported raw milk consumption
• was inversely associated to
  
• asthma, atopy hypersensitive allergies, and hay
  fever,
• independent of other farm
  exposures.

Gabriela Study Group. The protective effect of
farm milk consumption on childhood asthma and
atopy The GABRIELA study. (2011 Oct). Journal
of Allergy and Clinical Immunology 128, 4, p.
766-773. Retrieved from http//www.jacionline.or
g/article/S0091-6749(11)01234-6/fulltext
6
Editing history to prove a point?

• The CDC published a paper in 2012 about the harms
  of raw milk. Unfortunately, their data range from
  1993 to 2006 stopped one year before a Listeria
  outbreak killed 2 people from pasteurized milk,
  even though the information was public and
  available online.
• Why is that?

7
Problem encountered

• As the previous slide indicated, I had a really
  hard time finding objective materials. While most
  of the individual states allow raw milk sales in
  some capacity, the FDA stance of zero tolerance
  is not exactly helpful.
• Preparing a database of information from the CDC
  Foodborne Outbreak net gave me a clearer picture
  of raw milk and pasteurized milks role in
  foodborne illness.
• People are going to drink raw milk, so instead of
  propaganda to scare and intimidate people, the
  FDA needs to promote safe products.
• Its really not their place to limit what we can
  or cannot eatUnless Pepsi and Coke really are
  healthier drinks

8
Hot Dogs killed 21 people from Listeria in one
outbreak. Meanwhile, every major city has hot
dog vendors selling meat from tiny booths in the
open air. (Meat alone accounted for 42 of 48
deaths from Listeria!)
CDC. Foodborne Outbreak Net. Retrieved March 18,
2012 from http//wwwn.cdc.gov/foodborneoutbreaks
/Default.aspx
9
Raw milk can protect you from harmful bacteria

• With the objective of verifying the performance
  of the official analytical methodologies for the
  isolation of Listeria monocytogenes and
  Salmonella in milk, different concentrations of
  these pathogens were inoculated in raw milk
  treatments with different levels of mesophilic
  aerobes, and then submitted to the traditional
  isolation procedures for the inoculated
  pathogens
• The results indicated that recovery was not
  possible or was more difficult in the treatments
  with high counts of mesophilic aerobes and low
  levels of the pathogens,
• indicating interference of raw milk
  autochthonous microbiota.

Nero, Luís Augusto Rodrigues de Mattos, Marcos
de Aguiar Ferreira Barros, Márcia Beloti
Bernadette Dora Gombossy de Melo Franco, Vanerli.
The fate of indigenous microbiota, starter
cultures, Escherichia coli, Listeria innocua and
Staphylococcus aureus in Danish raw milk and
cheeses determined by pyrosequencing and
quantitative real time (qRT)-PCR. Microbiological
Research 2009 164(5)529-535
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Is raw milk really the correct emphasis?
From http//www.fda.gov/Food/ucm292218.htm Retrie
ved March 20, 2012
Raw milk has caused 2 deaths (1.4), pasteurized
milk has caused 4 deaths (2.9),
meat/greens/prepared food has caused 134 deaths
(95.7). Where would you like the FDA to spend
your taxpayer money protecting you from
foodborne illness?
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Raw milk is not even on the top ten riskiest
foods regulated by the FDA

• Leafy Greens
• Eggs
• Tuna
• Oysters
• Potatoes

• Cheese (soft)
• Ice cream (eggs)
• Tomatoes
• Sprouts
• Berries

Center for Science in the Public Interest. The
ten riskiest foods regulated by the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration. Retrieved from
http//cspinet.org/new/pdf/cspi_top_10_fda.pdf
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How to Protect People from Foodborne Illness

• Stricter enforcement of food processors
• Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP)
  
• Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)
• Encourage IMMUNITY over STERILITY
• Always keep your milk products at or below 40F to
  stop the growth of bacteria
• Promote a healthy digestive system (that can
  fight off harmful bacteria) by eating
  raw/unrefined foods (preferably home grown),
  balancing yeast and bacteria in the gut via
  probiotics and oil of Oregano.
• Dont trust the FDA Do your own research!

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If you buy/produce raw milk

• Before consuming raw milk, be sure to take
  appropriate steps to ensure the safety of the
  product
• Ask if the animals have been tested for TB and
  Johnes, vaccinated against Brucellosis, and
  checked for routine somatic cell and bacterial
  culturing of milk.
• Only purchase milk from farm you have been to
  and from people you feel confident in (that they
  are following HACCP and SOP procedures in the
  dairy AND creamery)
• Ask to watch them milk one night! Is it clean?
• Take preference pastured animals over
  confinement operations.
• If you see something you dont likeDont buy!

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Report freely available upon request(In case
you are wondering, we have consumed raw milk our
whole lives and have never had food poisoning.)
Raw milk cheese that I made from my cow Rose
tested free from TB, Brucellosis, Johnes,
Mycoplasma, Anaplasma, Pathogenic bacteria in
milk, with a somatic cell count of 90(k).
Ha ha Enjoying potluck dinner in the dairy barn
at the Howard County, MD fair 2011 after a hard
day of showing our Jerseys!
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References

• CDC. Foodborne Outbreak Net. Retrieved March 18,
  2012 from http//wwwn.cdc.gov/foodborneoutbreaks/
  Default.aspx
• Colonna, A. Durham, C. Meunier-Goddik, L.
  Factors affecting consumers preferences for and
  purchasing decisions regarding pasteurized and
  raw milk specialty cheeses. Journal of Dairy
  Science 2011 94(10)5217-5226
• Center for Science in the Public Interest. The
  ten riskiest foods regulated by the U.S. Food and
  Drug Administration. Retrieved from
  http//cspinet.org/new/pdf/cspi_top_10_fda.pdf
• Gabriela Study Group. The protective effect of
  farm milk consumption on childhood asthma and
  atopy The GABRIELA study. (2011 Oct). Journal of
  Allergy and Clinical Immunology 128, 4, p.
  766-773. Retrieved from http//www.jacionline.org
  /article/S0091-6749(11)01234-6/fulltext
• Langer AJ, Ayers T, Grass J, Lynch M, Angulo FJ,
  Mahon BE. (2012 Mar). Nonpasteurized dairy
  products, disease outbreaks, and state
  lawsUnited States, 19932006. CDCEID Retrieved
  from http//wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/18/3/11-137
  0_article.htm
• MacDonald, L.E. Brett, J. Kelton, D Majowicz,
  S.E. Snedeker, K. Sargeant, J.M. A Systematic
  Review and Meta-Analysis of the Effects of
  Pasteurization on Milk Vitamins, and Evidence for
  Raw Milk Consumption and Other Health-Related
  Outcomes. (2011 Nov). Journal of Food Protection
  74, 11, p. 1814-1832, 19p.
• Moltó-Puigmartí, Carolina Permanyer, Marc
  Castellote, Ana Isabel López-Sabater, M. Carmen.
  Effects of pasteurisation and high-pressure
  processing on vitamin C, tocopherols and fatty
  acids in mature human milk. Food Chemistry 2011
  124(3)697-702. Retrieved through UMUC Library
  Database
• Nero, Luís Augusto Rodrigues de Mattos, Marcos
  de Aguiar Ferreira Barros, Márcia Beloti
  Bernadette Dora Gombossy de Melo Franco, Vanerli.
  The fate of indigenous microbiota, starter
  cultures, Escherichia coli, Listeria innocua and
  Staphylococcus aureus in Danish raw milk and
  cheeses determined by pyrosequencing and
  quantitative real time (qRT)-PCR. Microbiological
  Research 2009 164(5)529-535
• Quilliam, R. S., Chalmers, R. M., Williams, A.
  P., Chart, H., Willshaw, G. A., Kench, S. M.,
  Edwards-Jones, G., Evans, J., Thomas, D. Rh.,
  Salmon, R. L., Jones, D. L. Seroprevalence and
  Risk Factors Associated with Escherichia coli
  O157 in a Farming Population. Zoonoses Public
  Health Mar2012, Vol. 59 Issue 2, p83-88, 6p
  Retrieved through UMUC Library Database