If you wouldn't lick a cow's undercarriage, why would you drink unpasteurized milk?
Petra Anne Levin, a professor of biology at Washington University in St. Louis, is clear when she explains to the AP news agency her opposition to the drink, called "raw milk" in English.
Like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the CDC and the Swedish Food Agency, she recommends pasteurized milk. Heating the milk briefly at the dairy kills harmful bacteria such as EHEC, Campylobacter and Listeria.
In Sweden, the law requires that milk and cream sold in stores be pasteurized, but farmers are allowed to donate or sell small amounts of unpasteurized milk from the farm.
Ate cheese - fell ill
In the U.S., the situation is more complex. At the federal level, it is prohibited to sell or transport unpasteurized milk across state lines. But at the state level, local regulations apply. And that's where the issue gets complicated.
Over the past 15 months, more than 40 bills have been introduced in state legislatures that aim to make it easier to trade or consume unpasteurized cow's milk, according to an AP review. In parallel, the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., is considering a bill to transport unpasteurized milk between states where it is legal.
The legislation is being introduced despite repeated reports of disease outbreaks. Nine people have been sickened after ingesting E. coli bacteria linked to cheddar cheese made from unpasteurized milk in California. Several of them are children under the age of five, one of whom has suffered serious kidney complications.
In recent decades, thousands have fallen ill from bacteria linked to raw milk, according to the CDC.
Decide for yourself?
Some advocates of unpasteurized milk - among them influencers on Instagram and TikTok - claim that it is healthy and that pasteurization destroys important enzymes. Others point out that you, not the state, should be able to decide what you put in your body.
"You can buy cigarettes, alcohol and so-called legal marijuana. Why shouldn't anyone (who wants to) be allowed to consume unpasteurized milk?" Michael Testa, a Republican state senator from New Jersey who is behind a bill to legalize it, argues for the AP.
U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic, drank "raw milk" on camera last year. In a post on X last fall, he promised to stop what he calls the FDA’s war on public health, including "aggressive repression" of unpasteurized milk.
