Dr. Pamela Rueg, researcher with the Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine, explains pasteurization briefly heats milk to kill harmful bacteria.
“Dairy cattle defecate wherever they want. They live in barns or in pastures, and when they lay down, their udder happens to be on the bottom of them, so the udder gets dirty, the teats get dirty, with whatever they're lying on. And when they go to be milked, while there's every attempt made to clean the udders of the cows, it's not a perfect process, and the milk becomes contaminated with bacteria.”
Dangerous pathogens found in raw milk include salmonella, listeria, Campylobacter which can lead to paralytic disease, and a form of E. coli which can cause kidney failure.
“While the majority of the milk, you know, 95% of it isn't potentially dangerous, some small proportion of it contains these pathogens. And it's impossible to predict which one is healthy and which one isn't.”
Federal law mandates pasteurization for commercial milk. In Michigan, farmers can only sell raw milk to consumers under what’s called a herd share agreement.
“That means they can sell a piece of a cow. Like a share, like, you own 20% of that cow, and you get 20% of her milk. So that's already legal in the state. And this legislation wants to expand that to allow direct sales from farmers to consumers."
Ruegg notes there is no data showing greater nutritional benefits to raw milk, only increased danger.
“You are taking on unnecessary risks for unverified benefits. It's just not a great decision, because we have so many healthy, highly nutritious dairy products that come from pasteurized milk that we should be consuming that have virtually no risk. So, it's risk with no reward.”
For a weekly dose of news right to your inbox, sign up for the WGVU newsletter.
