The Acting Agriculture Commissioner for New for New York State, Darrel J. Aubertine, is warning consumers that some milk products distributed by Finger Lakes Farms LLC have been voluntarily recalled due to <"https://www.yourlawyer.com/practice_areas/food_poisoning">improper pasteurization, wrote WebsterPost.
The recalled products sell under Ithaca Milk Company Low fat Milk and Ithaca Milk Company Cream on Top Whole Milk, said WebsterPost. Both milk products were packaged in quart, half-gallon, and gallon sized plastic containers; all recalled milk products contain the code SELL BY 013111; and all of the recalled products were in the Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Finger Lakes regions, noted WebsterPost.
Routine sampling was conducted by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets Milk Control and Dairy Services inspectors; follow-up analysis was conducted by New York State Food Laboratory personnel proved that the recalled milk products were not correctly pasteurized, said WebsterPost. To date, no illnesses have been reported in connection with these two recalled milk products.
We have long warned about the potential health problems associated with ingesting raw, or unpasteurized, milk and its sometimes very dangerous effects on human health.
Raw milk is milk that has not been pasteurized. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), raw milk or raw milk products were implicated in 45 outbreaks that resulted in over 1,000 illnesses and two deaths in the United States during 1998-2005. In 1938, milk was the cause of 25 percent of all food- and water-related sickness. With the introduction of universal pasteurization—long considered one of the most successful public health endeavors of the last century—that number fell to one percent by 1993. Because not all cases of food borne illness are recognized and reported, the actual number of illnesses associated with raw milk likely is greater.
According to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA), raw milk is unpasteurized milk from hoofed mammals, such as cows, sheep, or goats, that may contain a wide variety of harmful bacteria—Salmonella, E. coli O157:H7, Listeria, Campylobacter, and Brucella, to name just some—that may cause illness, even death. For decades, public health authorities, including the FDA and CDC, have expressed concerns about the hazards of drinking raw milk.
Since 1987, the FDA has required all milk packaged for human consumption to be pasteurized before being delivered for introduction into interstate commerce. The FDA’s pasteurization requirement also applies to other milk products, with the exception of a few aged cheeses.
The FDA insists pasteurization destroys harmful bacteria without significantly changing milk’s nutritional value. Of note, it is illegal to sell raw milk for human consumption in 22 states and bans sales across state lines.
