Amid the worrisome and growing problem of bacterial contamination of food, there is some good news.
Dairy products are some of the safest foods for consumers to eat.
The chart to the right from a report by the Center for Science in the Public Interest shows just how low the risk of foodborne illness in milk products is compared with other foods such as seafood and poultry.
Even produce carries a significantly higher risk for foodborne illness than dairy and this includes dairy that is completely unprocessed and consumed fresh from the farm.
According to published reports from the Centers for Disease Control between 1999 to 2010, foodborne illness from raw milk averaged about 42 per year.
This means that a person is about 35,000 times more likely to get sick from other foods than from raw milk, according to Sally Fallon Morell, President of the Weston A. Price Foundation.
Mrs. Fallon Morell goes on to add that ” … with good management practices in small grass-based dairies offering fresh unprocessed whole milk for direct human consumption, we may be able to reduce the risk even further.”
While cleanliness and good farm management practices have traditionally been the best ways to minimize the already low risk for raw milk contamination, technology is now offering another tool in the arsenal.
The Mocon Greenlight 900 Series
A recently developed technology now offers grass-based dairies the ability to test the safety of every batch of raw milk within hours in a cost-effective and efficient manner.
Developed by Mocon Inc. of Minneapolis, Minnesota in partnership with Luxel Biosciences of Cork, Ireland, the small, compact GreenLightâ„¢ Model 910 is a breakthrough system which offers rapid, same day, preventative screening technology for aerobic bacteria right on the farm by measuring respiration to determine the total live bacteria colony count.
Traditional screening technology for pathogenic bacteria that respirate aerobically such as E. Coli, Listeria, Salmonella, and Campylobacter use agar or film plate methods which are tedious and time-consuming with specialized labs required for the testing and results taking up to a week to produce.
Homogenizing the samples, creating dilutions, preparing the agar plates, replicating the samples up to 4-5 times each and then incubating for 48-72 hours to let bacteria grow is time and labor-intensive not to mention cost-prohibitive for frequent sampling.
Unlike these traditional testing methods, the GreenLightâ„¢ Model 910 reduces sample preparation time, the overall cost of testing and provides same-day results in 1-12 hours depending on bacterial load.
As bacteria in the test sample multiply and respire, they consume oxygen and this change in oxygen is used to calculate the original sample’s colony forming units per gram (CFU/g) for solids or per milliliter for liquids.
The small unit includes an easy-to-use PC software interface with multiple measurement modes. In addition, it provides the ability to generate a unique ID for each test so that it is simple to track specific batches.
This means that every single tank of milk could conceivably be tested before it is even bottled and purchased by the consumer!
While the type of bacteria detected in a given sample cannot yet be identified using the Greenlight 900 Series, this capability is expected to be available by the end of the year according to Mocon.
The unit costs about $9,000 and demos are available for farms that wish to try before they buy.
Raw Milk is Inherently Safe and Now Farmers Can Prove It – No Labs Required!
According to Dr. Ted Beals MD who compiled the CDC data that proves raw milk is safe:
It is irresponsible for senior national government officials to oppose raw milk, claiming that it is inherently hazardous. There is no justification for opposing the sale of raw milk or warning against its inclusion in the diets of children and adults.
While Dr. Beals’ analysis no doubt proves the case to those open-minded consumers willing to spend the time in research, old habits die hard and the government stance that “raw milk is dangerous” still needlessly scares away far too many consumers who could truly benefit from this nutrient-dense food.
Perhaps the advent of cost-effective, on-the-farm technology such as the Greenlight 900 Series will help pave the way for raw milk becoming the in vogue, popular health food it truly should be.
Sources
Mocon’s New Greenlight 910 Unit
Those Pathogens, What You Should Know
I don’t remember hearing any cases, it’s one of the big “DANGERS” of raw milk that the FDA touts but the miscarriage thing comes from the possibility that listeria bacteria may be present in raw milk which has the potential to cause a miscarriage if the mother is infected. If you’ve been drinking raw milk before your pregnancy you should have built up resistance to any bacteria that may have been present in the milk and thus would have no issues during pregnancy. Also quality farms that produce raw milk are typically a lot cleaner then factory farms (even organic), have less bacterial outbreaks (an they don’t sell milk from sick animals unlike factory farms), and by virtue of not having the “safety net” of pasteurization the milking area has to be a lot cleaner, animals have to be healthier, ect. If you’re close to a dairy that produces raw milk I would recommend heading over and having the farmer give you a tour (something a factory farmer would never allow by the way). Here’s the info on the listeria cdc.gov/listeria/
So many people commenting about the safety of raw milk. Are they new to this blog, or what???
Yes, new visitors that have never heard the good news about raw milk before! 🙂
Whitney Gesch I have been drinking raw milk for over 10 years and have never heard of a single case of this happening anywhere during that period of time.
Isn’t what all women do in the past having their cows, etc/
Raw goat milk is awesome too and can be easier on sensitive tummies! But lamauncha (not sure I spelled it right) and nubian goats have the tastey milk!
Tracy Peck Whittington, I’m now leaning towards the raw milk. Just need to get my family to agree 🙂 Will there be a dairy near us when the law passes in NC??
I get raw milk for 7$ a gallon. Oh so yummy! If I were to buy a gallon of organic milk in the store it would be 6.50. Non organic gallon here is 4.25
Okkkk. $9000 bucks…..not a likely purchase on this dairy, grassfed jersey herdshare operation.
The prices will come down over time for this technology. And, if you think of it this way … a single incident of foodborne illness can put the farm out of business, $9K is well worth it.
It is cheaper than much of the other farm equipment that dairy farms use, right? However, I do realize that for some small farms, $9K is a bit out of reach.
We have over 200 owners, perhaps I’ll take a survey and see if they’ like to help pay for it. We have produced and drank raw milk for more than 50 years with nary a problem. I’m not saying it can’t happen, but problems are caused by the handling of the product and not with the product itself.
Yes, good point. At least if the farm is able to test before the milk gets in the hands of the consumer, at least there is proof and evidence that the milk was fine when it left the farm.
Raw milk is amazing when raised by farmers who are knowledgeable and care about providing safe milk, we raise our own cows and love the milk! However, there are always those who cut corners. Milk from sick cows and dirty conditions is not safe. It is critical to know your farmer in this case! These bad actors are a big part of what got the laws changed in the first place.
Hi Sarah,
I have some questions unrelated to today’s post. I am hoping to start making kefir soon with raw milk. My husband who we think has a dairy allergy gets terrible ezcema. We want to try the kefir to help heal his gut. In one of your posts you mentioned to a friend to push through the eczema. I know all bodies are different but what is a good timeline to try pushing through before determining there may be a dairy allergy (we haven’t don’t raw dairy before for very long)? Should we do about a cup a day (I know with GAPS we should start slower than that, but we have done tons of probiotics foods for the last year as well as my husband takes a pharmaceutical grade probiotic).
Also, I read your article about the warning about millet. Do you eat millet at all? If I made millet pancakes once a week would that be too often? We generally don’t eat grains as we have been trying to follow GAPS as best we can but figured it would be better to cheat occassionally on something better than other things. I have fermented the grains just overnight & for 2 days as well. The pancakes are sweeteer with less fermentation but online it shows to ferment millet for several days.
Also, I have been researching cookware & have looked at posts on your site as well as Weston Price – are ceramic dishes okay & is it a problem if there is aluminum in the pan. My mom bought me some lead free/PFOA/ceramic pans & I took them back due to the alum. Dr Mercola has pans free of so much but I don’t know if it matters as long as the ceramic covers the aluminum. I have stainless steel & just need to replace my wok pan & pancake/egg pan.
I have been experimenting a lot with fermenting but sometimes run into questions. Do you know of a place where I can call in to get questions answered or are there any online classes that go beyond the basics?
THanks for your time & help,
Heather
Thanks,
Heather
You can have pretty much as much kefir as you want but watch out for die-off symptoms or allergy symptoms. You might try starting with 1/4 cup, then go from there.
Millet is not that great – I forget why… goitrogenic?? Aha, here you go:
https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/beware-of-millet/
I would use sorghum, buckwheat, rice. Even teff. Oftentimes a combo of these tastes the best.
For a wok, couldn’t you do stainless steel? I use a ceramic pan for eggs/pancakes (looks like Teflon, but it’s not – I do wonder about its safety as it’s a bit scratched up now… sigh). Also occasionally I use my cast iron pan, too. I would stay away from aluminum for sure. Are you saying it’s in the coating??
For fermenting, I would search this blog for previous articles. There is also a section on video classes and recipes at the top.
Hope this helps!!