A long-practiced food processing method has been up for debate in recent years, with some opting to drink and eat without sterilizing it first.
The polarizing process is pasteurization — a heating process that kills the microbes behind common foodborne illnesses.
Prominent pushes for “raw milk” consumption are growing, whether it’s Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. or Gwyneth Paltrow.
While still on the 2024 campaign trail for his failed presidential bid, Kennedy said he only drinks unpasteurized milk. In April, he suspended a quality control program for testing the nation’s dairy supply.
All the while, experts and researchers are advocating for Americans to only consume pasteurized milk.
Pasteurized vs unpasteurized: What’s the difference?
Pasteurization is the process of heating a food product for a certain amount of time to destroy bacteria and viruses present, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Dairy products, eggs, juices, canned food, flour, honey and alcohol, among others, are typically pasteurized.
Unpasteurized products don’t undergo the heating and germ-killing process. They can include milk, artisanal cheese, juice, meat and more.
Benefits, drawbacks of pasteurization
By getting rid of harmful microbes, pasteurization can prevent foodborne illnesses like listeriosis, typhoid fever, tuberculosis, diphtheria, Q fever, and brucellosis, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Pasteurization can also change the nutritional value, flavor and appearance of food, though only minimally, per the National Library of Medicine.
“Pasteurized milk offers the same nutritional benefits without the risks of raw milk consumption. Since the early 1900s, pasteurization has greatly reduced milk-borne illnesses,” the CDC says.
Are unpasteurized foods safe? What are the risks?
Some believe that so-called “raw milk” and other unpasteurized products are a healthier option, since they are straight from nature.
Some champion positive health returns from drinking unpasteurized milk, including raw milk farmer Cliff McConville: “I can tell you that I used to get sick like three times a year, like, you know, with colds or flu, and I almost never get sick anymore.”
But most medical bodies and independent experts say the benefits of unpasteurized food don’t outweigh the potential health problems.
The CDC and the FDA have warned that raw milk is unsafe because bacteria in it can cause illness or even death.
The bird flu virus can remain infectious in raw milk for over a day at room temperature and more than a week when refrigerated, according to a non-peer-reviewed study from a group of UK scientists.
The study, published in medRxiv, examined the stability of the H5N1 avian influenza virus in raw cow and sheep milk, with researchers simulating storage conditions common in dairy settings.
“High viral titres were detected in milk from infected cows, raising concerns about onwards human infections,” the authors wrote.
NewsNation’s Taylor Delandro and Mills Hayes contributed to this report.
