Once I started my profession within the meals security space a number of years in the past, I by no means dreamed I’d be discussing why folks mustn’t drink uncooked milk. However lately I ran throughout a information story in regards to the elevated incidence of uncooked milk outbreaks within the US.  The attract of uncooked milk has unfold by way of social media and captured the eye of well being lovers, who’re fast to tout that pasteurization reduces the well being advantages of milk and declare that uncooked milk has superior style.

For these of you in foodservice, you might be considering this doesn’t apply to you as a result of in virtually all states you can’t legally promote or serve uncooked milk in a foodservice operation.  Nonetheless, this doesn’t cease your prospects from making the request or dad and mom in your faculty from requesting you to serve uncooked milk.  Thus, I believed this weblog would possibly offer you some particulars of why uncooked milk shouldn’t be an important thought and assist to dispel a number of the myths surrounding it.

From 1998 by way of 2018, 202 outbreaks occurred because of the consumption of uncooked milk.  These resulted in 2,645 sicknesses and 228 hospitalizations.  Areas the place uncooked milk was authorized to promote in retail shops had an outbreak incidence 3.6 instances greater than the place it was solely allowed on the farm.

Micro organism equivalent to Campylobacter, E. coli, Salmonella, Staph aureus, and Listeria monocytogenes can simply thrive in uncooked milk, posing a major threat to anybody who consumes it.

Whereas I received’t have the ability to focus on the sensory and high quality traits of uncooked milk, just because I’ve no information to offer concerning it, and albeit, I’m not going to be the one who samples it.  However what we do know and what analysis and outbreaks have confirmed is that uncooked milk can harbor dangerous micro organism. In contrast to pasteurized milk, uncooked milk stays untreated, leaving it weak to contamination. Micro organism equivalent to Campylobacter, E. coli, Salmonella, Staph aureus, and Listeria monocytogenes can simply thrive in uncooked milk, posing a major threat to anybody who consumes it.

Even when utilizing uncooked milk in meals preparation, the probability of a foodborne sickness outbreak will increase. Once you begin with a product that has a excessive probability of contamination, even a small oversight in dealing with or storage can result in proliferation. Not solely does this jeopardize the well being and security of your prospects and workers, nevertheless it additionally tarnishes the popularity of the institution and may have a number of authorized ramifications. In case your institution serves weak populations, equivalent to pregnant girls, younger youngsters, the aged, or these with compromised immune techniques, you might be placing your institution at a good greater threat.

Through the years, numerous analysis research have been carried out, exploring the various myths that uncooked milk proponents focus on. Most of those myths focus on the unfavorable influence that pasteurization has on milk. For instance, in contrast to claims of those that tout uncooked milk, analysis has discovered that nutritional vitamins, minerals, protein, and fats losses are solely minimal throughout the pasteurization course of. Additional, uncooked milk was not discovered to be any totally different than pasteurized milk for many who expertise lactose intolerance and uncooked milk has solely barely much less lactoperoxidase, whereas different antimicrobials stay unchanged after pasteurization.

Thankfully, there are safer alternate options available. Pasteurized milk undergoes a easy but efficient course of that eliminates micro organism whereas preserving the dietary integrity and taste. By choosing pasteurized milk, you mitigate the danger of foodborne sickness outbreaks and reveal your dedication to prioritizing the well being and security of your prospects. The drawbacks of uncooked milk far outweigh any perceived advantages. Danger Nothing.