Might milk make you sick?
Federal and state officers say pasteurized milk obtainable in grocery shops is protected from chicken flu however warning that uncooked milk will not be.
So how are you aware what you are ingesting is protected?
The H5N1 chicken flu virus was first recognized in America’s milk provide earlier this 12 months ‒ however the virus researchers discovered was useless, killed by the speedy heating of pasteurization.
That is when officers started warning individuals to keep away from uncooked milk, which is touted by some as “more healthy.”
On Friday, officers determined to step up testing of milk on farms, each to maintain the general public from swallowing the virus and to extra shortly determine its unfold amongst farms.
There isn’t a doubt that some unpasteurized milk incorporates H5N1 virus. Final week, California public well being officers introduced a voluntary recall by Uncooked Farm LLC after detecting the virus in uncooked milk and cream at firm bottling and storage websites.
Though nobody has but caught chicken flu from their morning cereal or latte, there’s sturdy proof that the virus might be transmitted by way of uncooked milk.
Nonetheless, Uncooked Farm CEO and founder Mark McAfee questioned why California officers have been asking him to tug his merchandise from cabinets, saying they have been over-reacting since nobody has but gotten sick.
“That’s as a result of that is simply the newest handy platform to assault authorized uncooked milk in California!” he wrote in an electronic mail to USA TODAY. “Shield shoppers from what???”
Listed here are some issues to contemplate as you resolve what milk to purchase and drink:
What’s uncooked milk?
Uncooked milk doesn’t undergo pasteurization, a course of developed greater than a century in the past to kill viruses, micro organism and different pathogens. Cheese made with uncooked milk may also comprise pathogens which can be dangerous to individuals’s well being, based on the U.S. Division of Agriculture.
Uncooked milk is authorized for retail sale inside California, which is the nation’s largest dairy producer and has had over 500 herds contaminated with chicken flu. A number of states ban the sale of uncooked milk totally.
Since 1987, there’s been a federal ban of its gross sales throughout state traces.
Is uncooked milk good for you?
Uncooked milk supporters say it incorporates extra enzymes, probiotics (or the “good micro organism”), proteins and nutritional vitamins than pasteurized milk. In addition they say it helps stop persistent well being points equivalent to bronchial asthma and allergic reactions, in addition to ear and respiratory infections and fever, citing research of European kids residing on farms.
There’s little scientific proof to assist these claims, stated John Lucey, director of the College of Wisconsin’s Middle for Dairy Analysis and a meals science professor.
“The brief reply is not any, there aren’t any confirmed advantages,” he instructed USA TODAY.
“You’re being conned with these claims,” he stated. “That is snake oil.”
What uncooked milk does comprise, he stated, is loads of micro organism, viruses and different pathogens that may make individuals sick.
Earlier than pasteurization, individuals routinely have been sickened and died from ingesting uncooked milk, catching illnesses like tuberculosis, and uncooked milk remains to be much more doubtless than pasteurized milk to comprise micro organism like salmonella, E. coli and listeria.
“I don’t have any time for farmers who wish to put different individuals in danger for merchandise they make on their farm, knowingly,” stated Lucey, who grew up on a dairy farm.
Who can get sick from uncooked milk?
Pathogens in uncooked milk may cause diarrhea, abdomen cramps, vomiting and fever. These might not be severe for some individuals, however they will result in severe, even life-threatening diseases for individuals with weakened immune techniques, equivalent to infants, younger kids, the aged and pregnant, stated Lucey, who has analyzed dangers and advantages of uncooked milk consumption.
In 2023 and 2024, greater than 100 individuals fell sick from salmonella linked to uncooked milk from Uncooked Farm, the identical firm now on the middle of uncooked milk remembers for chicken flu. At the very least seven individuals have been hospitalized, and 40% of circumstances have been in kids. Findings solely got here to gentle from court docket information launched in the summertime, USA TODAY reported.
In a July 11 weblog submit, Uncooked Farm known as the investigation the results of a “corrupt, biased agenda” together with from the Meals and Drug administration and the media. “That is simply the latest of a protracted historical past of soiled methods,” the submit stated. “For those who see regarding and questionable headlines, please be very clear we’re in a conflict zone with a corrupt system that hates uncooked milk.”
Earlier than that, the corporate’s merchandise have been linked to a number of outbreaks of E. coli, salmonella and campylobacter, based on the College of Wisconsin Middle for Dairy Analysis.
How can pathogens infect uncooked milk?
Micro organism and viruses that may make individuals sick are discovered all through farms.
Micro organism like E. coli are current in poop or within the grime, so cows can lie down and get contaminated materials on their udders, stated Dr. Meghan Davis, an affiliate professor of environmental well being and engineering on the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Faculty of Public Well being.
Usually, the milking course of has requirements to wipe down udders and tools earlier than milking begins. However some micro organism can stay and contaminate the milk. Pasteurization kills these pathogens, however they will persist in uncooked milk.
Analysis has proven the best traces of chicken flu virus detected on the cow are round its mammary glands and within the milk itself, stated Davis, a former dairy veterinarian.
Milk samples check constructive for chicken flu lengthy earlier than cows present signs, based on Dr. Ok. Fred Gingrich II, govt director of the American Affiliation of Bovine Practitioners, a company representing veterinarians who deal with cows.
When chicken flu was first recognized in cows in Texas earlier this 12 months, barn cats have been dying on contaminated dairy farms from ingesting uncooked milk, Davis stated. Analysis has additionally proven ferrets and mice additionally get severely sick or die from contaminated milk.
Human circumstances of chicken flu have been largely amongst dairy and poultry staff. In dairies, officers imagine transmission to staff occurs after they’re in shut contact with contaminated animals. This consists of when persons are working close to udders and uncooked milk, since that’s the place virus traces are highest. They’ll then turn out to be contaminated in the event that they contact contaminated tools or milk splashes on them they usually contact their face.
For now, infections have been comparatively delicate in dairy staff, together with with eye redness. Nobody has unfold it to a different particular person, up to now.
Nevertheless, viruses are consistently mutating, so officers fear modifications to chicken flu could make it extra transmissible or trigger extra extreme sickness.
In a examine printed final week, researchers confirmed that just one mutation within the H5N1 virus might make it simpler for it to transmit amongst people. Flu viruses, like H5N1, mutate consistently, so it is just a matter of time and luck earlier than that mutation occurs, officers have stated.
What does pasteurization do?
Pasteurization is a century-old observe to kill pathogens utilizing warmth, time and strain. Earlier than pasteurized milk was commonplace, one-in-four foodborne diseases was associated to dairy, based on the FDA.
With chicken flu, pasteurization destroys the virus. So whereas traces of the virus’ genetic materials can nonetheless be discovered, the equipment of the virus is unable to duplicate, rendering it innocent, Lucey stated.
How can I get probiotics, ‘much less processed’ merchandise?
Simply because uncooked milk has excessive ranges of micro organism, it doesn’t suggest these micro organism are useful or “probiotic,” Davis stated. Probiotics should be non-pathogenic, whereas uncooked milk can comprise micro organism that make individuals sick, the FDA stated in its warning.
By comparability, pasteurized merchandise like yogurt or kefir, do have probiotics from the fermentation course of and have measurable well being advantages, together with strengthening the immune techniques, Davis stated.
By way of style, if individuals need a “much less processed” milk expertise, she recommends they buy pasteurized entire milk or cream.
Trump administration on uncooked milk
Uncooked milk has been within the highlight these days due to chicken flu, but in addition as a result of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a powerful proponent. President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Kennedy to turn out to be secretary of the Division of Well being and Human Companies, which oversees many of the authorities’s health-related businesses.
Kennedy’s assist for uncooked milk has pushed up demand, McAfee stated in a Nov. 30 interview with USA TODAY, noting that the recall will restrict already-strained provides of Uncooked Farm merchandise.
“Proper now, the market goes loopy due to what’s happening with RFK, after which the food-as-medicine idea,” he stated.
Kennedy, who lives in California, is a longtime Uncooked Farm buyer, McAfee added.
McAfee stated Kennedy’s transition group reached out to him about making use of for a place as an adviser for FDA’s uncooked milk requirements and coverage.
In an electronic mail, a spokesperson for the Trump transition group stated McAfee hasn’t had communication with anybody on the incoming HHS nor the Presidential Personnel Workplace, which is tasked with hiring political appointees.
As chicken flu continues to comb throughout U.S. dairies, Lucey, of the Middle for Dairy Analysis, hopes individuals don’t take dangers simply because chicken flu has solely brought on delicate an infection for now within the U.S. Earlier H5N1 outbreaks elsewhere have killed as many as half the individuals contaminated.
“I’m hoping to God that it doesn’t hurt anyone,” he stated. “However I’m not burying my head in my sand.”
