So... raw milk? Aibu?

[NewYoiker]

Milk man is now using a big dairy distributor so I've found a lovely little farm that also do door stop delivery in glass! Win!

They mainly do raw milk.. is raw milk any good? Or should I stay away from the ew that milk might kill us as my DH said

I work in food safety. I wouldn't drink raw milk, I've learnt all about the consequences and number of people who have become ill from consuming it

I grew up on a farm and we had it the whole time, It was so normal for us that I wouldn’t have ever considered anything wrong with it but I didn’t really know any better! It’s quite a bit thicker than shop bought milk from memory, and the taste varies between summer and winter based on whether the cows are eating grass in the fields or silage in the shed so that’s also a factor.

Its a good point about hygiene, do they have a food hygiene rating like cafes and restaurants?

food hygiene is a moot point if the cattle have systemic infections.

my dc had osteomyelitis, one common cause for that is tb. and if dc ever had raw milk was one of the first questions from the consultant.

Ugh. But even treated cow's milk is full of hormones and chemicals.

In the early 70s we moved to a housing estate on the edge of a city. From our house we could see a dairy farm on the opposite side of the valley and the cows in the fields. The farm family had set up a milkround to supply the estate. For years the milk was green top, i.e. unpasteurised, because that was all they offered. I assume they just had a small herd and didn't want the bother of having to pasteurise the milk.

It may or may not be a coincidence but when we had the Heaf test at school to see if we needed to have the BCG jab to protect against TB, I tested positive, which I was told meant I already had natural immunity to TB. I'd had four years of green top milk at that stage.

I don't think I'd risk having raw milk now.

Unpasteurized milk I killed possibly millions in the Victorian era. Bozine tb is a very real disease. With modern farming practices the chances are a lot less significant but still there. Also, no study has found that raw milk is better for you. Not worth the risk.

My children were all brought up on raw milk, literally straight from the cow and I drank it through all 4 pregnancies.

All children had a natural immunity to TB.

But, all the cows had their annual TB checks plus they were extremely well cared for and kept either out at grass or in very clean conditions in a barn that was never over-crowded. The walls/floors were steam cleaned each year to kill off any bacteria and the whole place was cleaner than many milking herds (these were actually suckler cows but from breeds that produced too much milk for one calf)

So, thanks to EU regulations, there are a LOT of restrictions around the sale of raw milk. It can only be sold either by the producer or within two miles of production. (Ie, you can buy it in a local farmers’ market from a middleman, or the farmer can ship it to customers in mainland UK).
The cows have to be tested very regularly for TB and brucellosis, more often than normal dairy cows whose milk is pasteurised, and if there is a positive, the milk can it be sold for a significant period.
Raw milk is about a million times more delicious than pasteurised, homogenised milk, but it does still carry a significant risk, even after all this safekeeping.
We do get raw milk delivered from a farm in Herefordshire to our house in London, but it has been unavailable for the past couple of months due to a reactor in the herd. But I do warn any guests who might not want to drink it, and I make sure there is an alternative.

All children had a natural immunity to TB

How do you know this? Do you get tested or just hurl infected badgers at them?

I worked in a dairy after leaving school testing milk , I would never touch raw milk. It's full of all sorts of nasty things - blood / pus / lots of different bacteria

Yuk stay well clear

I drank raw milk as a child and it didn't do me any harm. But God knows what harm it did to other people, and I wouldn't give it nowadays to anyone even slightly vulnerable or immunocompromised.

That said, I've just finished the last bottle of raw milk from a local farm (now stopped producing) and it was lovely.

All children had a natural immunity to TB

How do you know this? Do you get tested or just hurl infected badgers at them?

There might be something to this. DH drank raw milk all through his childhood and when tested for TB resistance in his teens (everybody was back then), he came up positive despite never having had TB.

He prefers filtered milk now thogh.

He prefers filtered milk now.

He prefers filtered milk now.

So much so that I said it twice.

As a compromise, perhaps you can find somewhere selling pasteurised but un-homogenised milk? It tastes nicer but is safe.
Raw milk is really only for healthy adults making an informed decision. Or perhaps those who milk their own cows and are completely confident about the standards and health of the herd.
Bovine tb is much more widespread than it's ever been, it's present in most of England and Wales now, I would not take the risk unless you know the farm is in a tb free area (Scotland and the North East of England) and has a closed herd policy i.e. doesn't buy in any cattle. The tb test for cattle is not accurate enough, and cattle can easily get infected by new cows coming onto the farm or infected badgers, if in certain areas.

literally straight from the cow

Literally...?

There might be something to this. DH drank raw milk all through his childhood and when tested for TB resistance in his teens (everybody was back then), he came up positive despite never having had TB.

Just been looking up natural immunity to TB and this ^^ seems rather dubious.

I grew up on raw milk. But it was from our own cow and mum milked everyday.

I would not drink raw milk from any other source - it is not worth the risk.

PS. our milk tasted horrible as our cow used to get into the weedy areas and eat the weeds that effected the flavour. I loved our milking cow, she was part of the family and used to let me pat her. I really loved it though when we gave up milking and bought pasteurised milk!

I wouldn't, but my aunt died at aged 21 because of TB thought to be caused by drinking raw milk. My mother, who was 9, also got TB, but fortunately survived after spending a year in a convelescent home.

We used to get this about 10 years ago, it made me feel really natural and a bit hippy, I had no idea of the risks though! After reading this thread I will never buy it again!

There is a reason why every village had an idiot before pasteurisation was invented.

Literally now has two meanings in the dictionary

Interestingly, the second definition in Chambers says "often inappropriately used for mere emphasis". So, they are saying it is wrong.

Pasteurisation was a massive leap forward in public health for good reason.

If you want to take the risk for yourself have at it but don't give raw milk to your children or husband.

I was wondering after reading this if people have forgotten or never known how many people used to die from all sorts of causes we can now prevent. In that case you might have assumed that pasteurisation was all about convenience for the producer/manufacturer/retailer/consumer and not grasped that food safety for the consumer was another pressing reason for trying to work out how to keep food fresh for longer.