“I’ve put a couple kids in the hospital, and they have been sick, but they recovered,” McAfee acknowledged before my visit. “But here’s the thing: I’m a pioneer. And I’m going against the grain here. I’m climbing a mountain they say you can’t climb.”
…
“We catch these things and divert the milk immediately,” McAfee said of the pathogens.
I assumed that after diverting batches, the farm discarded them.
Later that day, I learned otherwise.
“We have a red-flag system here, where if there’s anything that gets really out of whack, they can immediately tag the milk, and it doesn’t go to anything but cheese,” McAfee told me. “Because, you know, cheese is resistant to pathogens.”
Research has shown that raw cheese is not, in fact, resistant to pathogens; while aging can mitigate some risk, harmful bacteria can still survive the usual 60-day maturation process.
I’m not sure what’s done differently, but in France you can find raw milk and not get sick, and we make a shit ton of cheese with raw milk without problems (3/4 of the production). It is not advised for childrens or peoples with health risk though
Idk about france but in the US it’s just grifters doing it, no attention to quality control. You can see the guy literally says that IF they catch some bad milk, they turn it into cheese. It’s straight up criminal, that man should be thrown in prison for what he’s doing.
That’s sad, raw milk does carry risk if not done properly and following high quality norms. Agreed this should be criminal
they probably use other sterilizing procedures, than heating up the milk. what RFK jr is reccomonding is drinking right from the teet, and also allowing the milk to sit at room temp for hours, or days.
maybe france refrigerates it immediately.
Of course it need to be refrigerated immediately, this seems to be common sense here 😅
People get sick from raw milk cheeses in France constantly.
https://www.anses.fr/en/content/raw-milk-cheeses-what-are-associated-health-risks-and-what-preventive-measures-can-be-taken
This article from ANSES mention that the current risk is low, even if it can happen nevertheless. "However, there is still a residual risk and it is important to identify new ways of optimising the current control measures. "
That little bit there is absolutely bullshit.
These numbers are absolutely horrendous of you know what they mean.
Salmonella is the most common foodborne pathogen. Most outbreaks are small (due to poor sanitation). They are estimated to happen multiple times a day. 34% means that somebody is getting sick, daily.
Listeria and enterohaemorrhagic E. coli are deadly. Knowing that 37% of listeria and 60% of E.coli deaths are directly linked to raw cheese. Frances cheese industry and government is accepting completely preventable deaths. Simple pasturization can prevent 90-95% of these cases.
Quality and control matter a lot. Another good example is MettBrochen (raw pork toast)
60% looks scary, until you look at the numbers behind : “In 2023, 2,231 outbreaks of foodborne illness were reported in France, affecting 22,282 people, of whom 549 (2%) sought medical care (hospitalization or emergency room visits) and 19 (0.1%) died.” Admitting that raw milk was associated with 60% of the deaths, this is still a relatively low number compared to the numbers of consumers. https://www.santepubliquefrance.fr/en/toxi-infections-alimentaires-collectives/national-bulletin/outbreaks-foodborne-illness-france-2023-report
it isn’t different. raw milk has just become politicized in the us because of rfk.
It’s slightly different in that we don’t get sick from it…
That just isn’t true. A quick search returned this and this. Just like in the US it seems to be very rare. There are also plenty of other foods like melon, greens, meat, etc that can cause similar sickness. My point is that these rare cases that involve raw milk in the US are being publicized because RFK is a proponent of raw milk and is Donald Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services. Raw milk wasn’t just legalized and it didn’t just start making people sick in the US rather the media just started reporting on it in order to blame RFK for it.
Maybe the magat farmers doing this use the same old pasturized procedures, just without actually pasteurizing? The safety and cleanliness is designed around “good enough”. Because, if you’re sterilizing after collection anyway, it’s fine. However, it is not enough cleanliness if you’re not also sterilizing after collection.
Or
These magat farmers are likely just doing whatever they want. The FDA doesn’t function anymore. There are almost no inspectors or inspections anymore. Regulations have been rolled back across the board. Not that it matters if you’re not inspecting. Since trump took office, food spoils much quicker.
And on top of all that, these raw milk farmers are on trump’s untouchables list. So also, they can double do whatever they want.