Raw Milk: Why CDC Says to Choose Pasteurized

Since the early 1900s, pasteurization — heating milk hot enough, for long enough, to kill disease-causing germs — has greatly reduced illness from milk. Raw milk skips that step. Good farm practices can reduce contamination, but they can't guarantee raw milk is free of harmful germs, and pasteurized milk offers the same nutritional benefits without the risk.

Image from CDC's page on raw milk.

What raw milk can carry

Drinking raw milk, or eating products made from it, can expose people to:

• Campylobacter
• Cryptosporidium
• E. coli
• Listeria
• Brucella
• Salmonella

Children under 5, adults over 65, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems are at higher risk of serious illness.

CDC also recommends against drinking raw milk contaminated with live H5N1 bird flu virus as a way to develop antibodies against future infection: it could make you sick.

Symptoms

Illness from raw milk can cause diarrhea, stomach cramps and vomiting. Sometimes it leads to more severe conditions, such as Guillain-Barré syndrome or hemolytic uremic syndrome, which can cause paralysis, kidney failure, stroke or even death.

How to stay safe

• Choose pasteurized milk and dairy products, and read labels carefully.
• Refrigerate perishable foods at 40°F or colder. Bacteria multiply fast at room temperature, in the "danger zone" between 40°F and 140°F.
• Don't leave perishables out for more than 2 hours — or 1 hour above 90°F, as in a hot car or at a picnic.
• Throw out expired or spoiled food. When in doubt, throw it out.

CDC has collected the stories of families who became ill after drinking raw milk, including Julie Riggs, Mary McGonigle-Martin, whose son got sick, and Kalee Prue, in its video series.

Sources

Based on "Raw Milk," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain. See also CDC's Raw Milk: Know the Raw Facts infographic.