Pasteurizing changes the taste. Sometimes you value the taste more than the safety.
It’s nice to have fresh stuff. Heck, I’ve even milked a cow and drunk the milk still warm.
Imagine if food safety fanatics insisted that we could no longer have fresh orange juice and it all has to be pasteurized for safety. Yuck.
Anway, perfect excuse to use this meme:
I have no doubt Basel’s Rudolf-Steiner people say exactly the same, insisting the freedom to cause the next measles outbreak.
There are many factors here which make Parmigiano Reggiano ‘safe’ using unpasterized milk, and all which kill, or reduce harmful bacteria:
The long maturing time.
The high salt content.
Low moisture.
The quick acidification.
Gorgonzola is made in a different way and would be unsafe using raw milk.
Having suffered from Listeria caught from Gorgonzola, I’m not sure it’s 100% safe using pasteurised milk.
It could have got contaminated during the manufacturing process
The food risks from drinking unpasteurized milk aren’t that terrible for most people… worst case you’ll end up on the toilet for a few days, sure - it sucks, but you’re not dying and people used to do that for a long time… In Japan they eat Fugu (puffer fish) and they’re also still doing fine there - albeit more regulated than unpasteurized milk.
I know some crazy people in the US - once someone argued with me that it’s toxic to leave my food out on the stove for one night to reheat and eat it the next day… I mean I guess some people are just paranoid or so… we’re pretty much degenerating our immune systems by trying to keep everything sterile…
Now I don’t want to take away from all the medical achievements of humanity, in fact it’s a privilege to enjoy them, but we shouldn’t make our lives so we can only survive in pseudo sterile environments… there probably is a good balance to take here.
maybe i’m a bit extreme, but i’ve left food on the stove for 4 days in a row. reheating and eating a bit of it every day.
reheating kills the microorganisms, but also the healthy food stuff. but it also kicks the immune system into higher gear…
some dishes taste better the day after - pizza? curry? )
what does not kill you makes you stronger)
According to a 2017 study unpasteurized dairy products cause 840 times more illnesses and 45 times more hospitalizations than pasteurized products.
Oh I am not denying that it indeed does have (as you’ve linked significantly) higher risks of bacteria infections, but to put this into perspective:
In the United States, outbreaks associated with dairy consumption cause, on average, 760 illnesses/year and 22 hospitalizations/year, mostly from Salmonella spp. and Campylobacter spp.
If one thinks about all the people that consume milk and the quanitites they do so (in the US or otherwise), the number is probably not something to worry about, but it’s a decision anyone has to make for themselves.
Yes it is small. You’d better instead ban soda, sugary foods and fast food before raw milk.
We were told (after the event) that Gorgonzola is a relatively common cause of Listerosis.
Common as in on a par with other soft cheeses.
Idk about you, but when I reheat, I don’t cook the food again, I probably just heat it to about 60-70 C and not for long.
4d would be a tad too long for me personally, I rarely have stuff out for more than 24h.
Not really relevant though in a discussion on the dangers of raw milk.
That would be like wanting statistics on car safety but looking at tractors.
A Swiss study showed:
Contamination Rates: A 2026 Swiss study found that up to 5% of examined raw milk samples contained pathogens like Campylobacter and STEC (E. coli). About 10% contained multi-resistant bacteria
And hygiene standards in Switzerland are probably better than in most countries.
The worst food poisoning I had in my life was from a soft, runny cheese served on a naan bread in Northern India in Pushkar.
I knod of knew that I shouldn’t have touched it when it was served to me and should have just not eaten it.
I was bed-ridden for a week with my body emptying of fluids at both ends and a high fever.
Sure - absolutely, but the fact it has said bacteria doesn’t mean you’ll get food poisoning. It’s not a 1 in 20 Chance to be bed ridden for a week, we don’t even know if it’s a 1 in 1000 chance - this probably depends on a lot of factors (base level of bacteria, age of the milk, amount consumed, etc.
I guess the locals also eat said cheese, no? They probably have more tolerance/resistance towards said bacteria (which is probably a positive side effect of consuming raw milk products)
And also… I mean come on man… India…? That’s like anti Switzerland.
There’s no monitoring service here so amount of illness from raw milk is unknown.
Probably not- it was one of those dodgy places serving food to backpackers. That was a big flag but I didn’t trust my instinct.
Eating at places frequented by locals (which I normally did), was never a problem.
You obviously have little experience of the dairy industry and seem to pick up statistics out of the ether. If you have a good local source of raw milk, then be happy. Do not expect or encourage others to follow with spurious arguments.
Fortunately the raw milk producers take the issue seriously; On-Farm Lab Testing for Raw Milk Farmers — Raw Milk Institute
Our milk on the ranch goes directly from the (Nubian) goats into the fridge. Delicious! Been doing it for almost 50 years.
According to this study, unpasteurized milk, consumed by only 3.2% of the population, and cheese, consumed by only 1.6% of the population, caused 96% of illnesses caused by contaminated dairy products.
