Warnings about Raw Cream
A recent warning underscores yet again the hard reality that consuming unpasteurized products could kill you or, at the very least, do you serious harm.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers not to consume raw (unpasteurized) cream labeled as “ORGANIC PASTURES Grade A RAW CREAM” in one-pint plastic bottles and coded “SEP 14” through “SEP 21.”
This unpasteurized product, marketed by Organic Pastures Dairy Company, Fresno, Calif., may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, an organism that can cause a serious and sometimes fatal disease called Listeriosis in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. While healthy people may suffer only short-term effects — high fever, severe headaches, stiffness, nausea and abdominal pain and diarrhea — listeriosis may result in miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.
The product was sold in retail stores throughout California and also was available worldwide via telephone orders.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture issued an order to Organic Pastures on Sept. 7 to withdraw the raw cream from retail distribution after routine product sampling at the facility detected the bacteria.
Pasteurization, a process that heats milk to a specific temperature for a set period of time, kills bacteria responsible for diseases such as listeriosis, salmonellosis, campylobacteriosis, typhoid fever, tuberculosis, diphtheria and brucellosisis — the reason one expert admits having a hard time understanding why informed people would deliberately place themselves and their families at risk from consuming unpasteurized products.
“We recommend that you don’t consume any kind of milk product that is not pasteurized,” says Dr. Jean Weese, an Alabama Cooperative Extension System food safety specialist and Auburn University professor of nutrition and food science. “That includes milk, cream and cheese.”
In fact, she says all commercial cheeses are made from pasteurized milk partly because of the threat of listeria to pregnant women and individuals with compromised immune systems.
Nevertheless, there is a growing demand among thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of U.S. consumers for raw milk products — products that the vast majority of the nation’s health authorities consider unsafe — on the basis that they are somehow healthier than unpasteurized products.
For her part, Weese considers pasteurized milk as one of the noteworthy scientific advances of the 20th century. As far as she’s concerned, it’s hard disputing the facts: In 1938, milk was the source of 25 percent of all outbreaks of food- and water-related illnesses, according an article published recently in The New York Times. Following the wholesale adoption of pasteurization, that number dropped to 1 percent in 1993.
The recent recall doesn’t mean that consumers no longer are permitted to buy raw cream in California. Beginning Sept. 20, the California Department of Agriculture now permits the sale and distribution of Organic Pastures to sell and distribute raw cream in California.
Meanwhile, the FDA advises consumers to throw away any product labeled as "ORGANIC PASTURES Grade A RAW CREAM" with code dates "SEP 14" through "SEP 21.”
Moreover, FDA advises individuals who have consumed Organic Pastures raw cream and who have experienced any of the symptoms described above should contact a doctor or other health care provider immediately.
No illnesses have been reported to date.
Consumers with questions may contact Mark McAfee, Chief Executive Officer/Founder of Organic Pastures, at (877) RAW-MILK or (877) 729-6455.
Posted by Jim Langcuster at September 27, 2007 01:26 PM