Raw milk consumption- Hazards and their control

Milk is a life sustaining food that can provide almost all the nutrients required by a human being. The dairy industry as we know to day is a high tech venture that involves high expenditure to ensure that the consumers get only safe milk after necessary tests are done. Consider the plight of vegetarians whose dietary habits do not permit consumption of high protein foods like egg, meat and fish and who depend on milk for deriving most of their protein requirements. For them milk is elixir of life though there are a few protein sources in the plant kingdom that can furnish proteins in the diet, albeit of a lower quality nutritionally. Since the world has moved away from small sized milk farms serving locally to huge mechanized and automated dairy conglomerates with adequate infrastructure to distribute their products over thousands of kilometers with absolute guaranteed safety, most consumers do not bother about safety relying heavily on the industry to ensure the same. It is only recently that a small movement started some years ago by some people to consume raw milk has grown into a phenomenon attracting all round attention. Though food scientists will never vouch safe for the safety of raw milk without pasteurization, those patronizing this product are least deterred and if latest reports are to be believed raw milk consumption is growing in a country like the US where there are sizeable patrons posing challenge to the organized dairy sector. Read further to understand and form your own opinion regarding this new phenomenon. 

"The numbers say it all. There were only six raw-milk dairies in the state in 2006. There are now 39 — more than double the number in 2013 when there were 18. All are Grade A licensed dairies, which means their milk must meet the same food-safety standards as milk from conventional dairies. State officials say the number of raw-milk dairies will likely continue to climb. Raw milk is milk that hasn't been pasteurized. When milk is pasteurized, it is heated to a high enough temperature to kill disease-causing bacteria such as E. coli , Salmonella andlisteria. Health officials warn that children are especially vulnerable to pathogens in raw milk, primarily because their immune systems are still developing. State law in Washington requires that all retail raw milk products carry a warning label that states: "WARNING:  This product has not been pasteurized and may contain harmful bacteria.  Pregnant women, children, the elderly and persons with lowered resistance to disease have the highest risk of harm from use of this product." Despite numerous outbreaks and recalls of raw milk across the country and warnings from federal and state agencies about the potential dangers associated with drinking raw milk, demand is strong. And continues to grow. A passionate lot, raw-milk advocates have a range of reasons for avoiding pasteurized milk. Many say they can drink raw milk without experiencing allergic reactions such as bloating and other digestive discomforts. Others like that it often comes from family farms, in contrast to what they refer to as "factory farms." Still others laud it for its power to cure ailments ranging from arthritis to cancer — claims that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says are anecdotal and not based on science. And, most raw-milk consumers say that it just plain tastes better. "The real deal" is a popular rallying cry in raw-milk circles. "The cat's been let out of the bag, and no one's going to be able to put it back in," said Jim Sinnema, owner the Old Silvana Creamery north of Seattle, referring to the growing popularity of raw milk. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration bans the interstate sale or distribution of raw milk. In other words, raw milk produced in one state cannot be sold in another state. The U.S. Pasteurized Milk Ordinance requires that milk sold across state lines be pasteurized and meet the standards of the ordinance. A dozen states currently allow raw milk sales at retail outlets. Among them are California, Idaho and Pennsylvania. However, the milk has to meet certain  standards, usually Grade A standards. Sixteen states ban raw milk altogether. With Washington state's requirement that raw-milk dairies be licensed as Grade A, the operations must be inspected and have their milk tested on a regular basis. It's a practical way for dealing with reality. If raw-milk sales are illegal, say many public health officials, consumers will seek it out anyway, putting themselves and their families at risk. Here's the rub — raw milk requires more tests than conventional milk. Yong Liu, manager of  the microbiology lab at Washington state's Agriculture Department, said since raw milk is not pasteurized, it must also be tested for foodborne pathogens, in addition to the same quality-control tests performed on pasteurized milk. The five pathogen tests are for Salmonella, Listeria, campylobacter and two types of E. coli. Up to nine tests are often conducted on raw-milk samples. Washington officials say raw milk is one of the highest risk food products for sale in the state."

Milk is a rich food and naturally it is more vulnerable to spoilage by many bacteria within a matter of few hours causing irreparable damage to its flavor, taste and texture. In a country like India where milking is done manually without using vacuum machines, the shelf life can be expected to be extremely short. Fresh milk vending still exists in the country but care is taken to deliver the extracted milk within a couple of hours and the buyers do not lose any time to boil the milk to kill all microorganisms which may be present in the product. If the maintenance of cows are scientifically efficient, if the milking person is hygienically "clean", if the utensils are washed thoroughly and if the milk is immediately chilled there is no reason why it should not keep for a day or two without "splitting". But large scale distribution of raw milk may be inconceivable in India because of the sanitation limitations at all levels. As for the claims that raw milk is superior to pasteurized milk, the jury is still out and unless scientifically proven will not stand critical scrutiny. As long as the avowed devotees of raw milk are prepared to take "risks", no one can grudge their privileges, if one can all them so!

V.H.POTTY
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RAW MILK CONSUMPTION-THE "SAFETY" DEBATE

Why should the milk undergo the routine thermal processing involving heating to 161F for 15 seconds or any other heat treatment before marketing? Any school going kid will answer this question as every one knows it is a highly perishable commodity incapable of keeping in good quality even for a day without getting spoiled and becoming unfit for human consumption. There are many bacteria in milk by the time it is extracted from the milch animal and as it is one of the richest sources of vital nutrients for growth of any living organism, it is no wonder these bacteria proliferate quickly causing chemical, physical and microbiological changes in the material. Why some people are defying this scientific truth and still advocate consumption of raw milk is puzzling. Most charitable explanation could be that such irrational practices arise out of ignorance prevailing among some people. According to knowledgeable scientists, nutritionists, health pundits and toxicologists, raw milk consumption has the potential to make people sick through contamination with pathogenic bacteria like Salmonella, virulent E.coli, Listeria, Campylobacter etc with undesirable consequences like fever, head ache, diarrhea, abdominal pain, vomiting besides other long term health problems. Here is a commentary on this queer phenomenon of a few people stubbornly campaigning against pasteurization process and encouraging consumption of only raw milk.       

"Earlier this year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control concluded a 13-year study and reported raw-milk products are 150 times more likely to cause foodborne illnesses than pasteurized dairy foods. In January, 81 people in four states developed intestinal infections from raw milk traced to a Franklin County dairy farm, according to the state Department of Health. They were sickened by campylobacter bacteria, which causes fever, diarrhea, vomiting and headaches. At least nine people were hospitalized. "The health issues are considerable," said James Dunn, Ph.D., an agricultural economist at Penn State University. "It doesn't have to be a big mistake to have a big implication. When you pasteurize milk, it kills the germs." Conventional milk is pasteurized in a process that typically heats milk to 161 degrees for 15 seconds to kill bacteria. Advocates of raw milk, though, say it can cure illnesses and protect against diseases. "Pasteurization is the greatest destruction of nutrients of anything we have in this country," said Sally Fallon Morrell, president of the Weston A. Price Foundation, a nutrition advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. "Raw milk is an extremely nutrient-dense food." Unpasteurized milk helps protect against asthma, allergies and skin problems and builds strong teeth and bones, Ms. Morrell said.
"These things need to be looked at more," she said.

Some of the justifications touted by the protagonists of raw milk cannot stand scientific scrutiny and many of their claims are just outlandish. It is not correct to say that pasteurization destroys nutrients, creates lactose intolerance, causes allergy and kills active cells supposed to beneficial. Of course the argument that babies fed on breast milk thrive well is a perfectly valid one but it must be remembered that milk is directly transferred from the mother to the child without any out side intervention , thereby eliminating the chances of contamination of the ingested milk. In contrast commercial operations like milking, use of containers, milking environment, chilling, bulk transport, packing etc can cause havoc to the microbial quality of milk and only pasteurization process can stop this eventuality. The compulsions of modern life like ready access to milk 24x7, distribution time, retailing and storage in kitchen for consumption as and when needed all make it imperative to preserve the milk at least for a few days. Not only fluid milk but products made from raw milk including soft cheeses like Brie, Camembert, Queso Fresco, Panela, Asadero etc are also considered risky to consume, especially by vulnerable consumers like pregnant women, old people and those with weakened immune system. An interesting issue is that consumption of raw milk in the US has caused only less than 1000 milk related safety episodes since 1998 and therefore it would be better to leave those insisting on consuming raw milk to continue to do so, in stead of arguing the case against the practice.   

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

FRESH MILK MARKETING-A NEEDLESS CONTROVERSY!

As long as democracy functions, there are bound to be differences of opinion among the citizens whether they are scientists, industrialists or politicians. The perennial controversy revolving around raw milk vs commercially processed version has been going on for decades with divergent views aired from time to time by those concerned about the subject. Antagonists of pasteurized milk invariably find fault with it because of their perceived feeling that the process of pasteurization destroys only beneficial components while allowing hostile elements to stay back causing harm to the consumers. In sharp contrast modern science, with some solid evidence, approves pasteurization because without this process, milk cannot be preserved till it reaches millions of far flung consumers. The intensity of feeling among the actors in this saga is reflected by the following rantings against dairy milk:

"Dairy is central to both the food supply and to sustainable agriculture. The FDA (run by Monsanto) is taking it apart. Rather than being harmful, raw milk is the only safe milk in the US and has innumerable benefits not found in pasteurized milk. The health community (doctors, researchers, public health officials) need to stop being misled by corporate media and find out what is happening to their own food. They might be interested to know that the new "food safety" law that gave so much power to the FDA to go after big corporate facilities with deadly contamination is being used just as farmers said it would be — to get rid of access to safe food and shut down natural and organic farmers. They might also be surprised to learn that Obama put Monsanto in a position to be in charge of all food and farms in the US by making a Monsanto VP named Michael Taylor, Czar of the food safety division of the FDA. That division (that is to say, Monsanto) is in court right now attempting to remove the right to choose food, consume or feed our children the food of our choice, the right to contract between ourselves (for it or anything else), and the right to our bodily and physical health. Worse, the case appears rigged to be lost and to leave those precedents. Will the scientific/medical/public health community wake up to what is happening and the threat to their own food supply? How quickly can they then begin to appreciate that they got duped on what is safe and what is dangerous. It turns out that pasteurized milk doesn't reach a high enough temperature to kill off the Crohn's bacterium getting into the milk from the sick cows in the industrial dairy herd. The temperature is high enough to destroy enzymes and friendly bacteria, though".

"For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction", so said Isac Newton and same is true in to day's society."For every view there is not one but several opposite views", should be the idiom, if we go by the divergent opinions expressed and written about. Whether one likes it or not in the modern urban settings pasteurization is unavoidable because of the logistics involved in rearing milch animals, milking process and distribution. Of course raw milk, from a cow or buffalo reared in one's home under clean and hygienic environment without any disease can be considered safe for a few minutes after milking but has to be boiled if it has to stay in good condition for a few hours. Fortunately under Indian conditions practically all milk consumed, whether from the milkman or the dairy is boiled in the so called "milk cooker"which takes the temperature to the safe zone of 100C. Man has lived with pasteurized milk for decades without any major disaster and will continue to live with it for decades to come with no possibility of any adverse consequences. It is better to avoid such needless controversies when it comes to a vital food like milk which is one of the most nourishing foods for millions of vegetarians in the world.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

AMBIENT CONDITION PASTEURIZATION- OF EGG-THE -NEW PLASMA GAS TECHNOLOGY

Food processing is ideally a balance between the need for preservation from spoilage and maintaining the sensory quality and nutrition of the food almost on par with their fresh counterparts. But in practice some compromise has to be struck wherein the eating quality may have to be compromised to some extent. Of the major process technologies, thermal processing using high temperature conditions is known to cause maximum damage to the end product, especially in terms of texture and some times flavor. Innovative developments in food technology are invariably targeted at evolving an ideal process that can accomplish preservation at ambient conditions and there are already a few such technologies like gamma radiation, use of chemical preservatives, etc which, of course have their own limitations when it comes to universal acceptance. It is in this context that the new innovation, recently reported involving use of non-thermal plasma for achieving food decontamination at low temperatures, has to be considered.

Gas plasma decontamination, produced by discharges at atmospheric pressure and low temperature, could make it a practical and inexpensive process for product preservation. Non-thermal plasmas can be generated by microwave, radio-frequency, pulsed and other power sources. Suitable systems that have been studied include the resistive barrier discharge (RBD), which can generate gas plasma at atmospheric conditions. Several mechanisms are thought to be responsible for microbial inactivation and depend on plasma characteristics and the type of microorganism. The electrical and chemical emissions of the plasma devices can be measured and used to calculate the electron number density of the plasma, while emission spectra can also be used to determine the rotational and vibrational temperatures of the plasma. Gas plasma could have potential for the decontamination of foods such as shell eggs that are difficult to sanitize by conventional methods, but further investigation is needed into the use of cold plasma in the food industry. A study by Ragni et al.¹, describes the development and evaluation of a prototype RBD plasma device. The plasma glow was analysed by optical emission spectroscopy while the discharge was electrically characterized. The surface decontamination of shell eggs, experimentally inoculated with Salmonella enteritidis and Salmonella typhimurium, was assessed over different decontamination times and gas conditions. The RBD device generated a low-temperature, after-glow gas mixture able to reduce the populations of both microorganisms on shell eggs. The plasma emission showed the presence of OH radicals, NO radicals and other reactive species involved in the microbial reduction. Treatment times of around 90 minutes were feasible for the poultry industry, with no significant negative effects on egg quality traits.

Though the development is in an early stage, the gas plasma technology for preservation may revolutionize the industrial processing of foods in the coming years, if it can be applied to many foods, especially those vulnerable to pathogenic infection. Limited studies on egg preservation offer some encouraging results and there is a long way to go before it becomes a reliable means of ensuring safety of perishable foods. One of the limitations could be the long exposure time required to achieve a satisfactory kill of pathogens which may make it difficult to make the process continuous. Also to be ensured is the safety of artifacts produced in the food, if any, during the process on human health.

V.H.POTTY

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HIGH PRESSURE PROCESSING-A CLEAN TECHNOLOGY

Preservation of food is a vital necessity of mankind as such a course of action can ensure food security all the time. As most foods are seasonal in nature, excess production needs to saved away for future needs when production is not possible due to season and weather conditions. For the last 200 years man has been continuously striving to reduce food wastage through better technologies and the vast strides made by food technology have provided food industry with a wide range of choices vis-à-vis food preservation. One of the most elegant process evolved relatively in recent times makes use of the principle that when food is subjected to high hydrostatic pressure all living things in it are totally destroyed. Pressures as high as 50000 pounds per square inch can make inactive bacteria, molds and yeasts in less than 15 minutes. Many enzymes are also inactivated because of the susceptibility of protein to denaturation at the pressure employed. The 17th Century scientist Blaise Pascal who is the pioneer in high pressure processing (HPP)would not have imagined that the process named after him as "Pascalization" has such a high potential for saving foods from spoilage to day.

"High pressure in the food industry, as a new non-thermal method, is applied in many phases of food processing. This new non-thermal technology was developed in the 1990s. The main advantages of high-pressure processing are in the short time of processing which is between a few seconds and 30 minutes. Processing of solid or liquid food products with or without packaging happens in the temperature interval 5 – 90 °C, and pressures 50 – 1000 MPa. The driving pressure is distributed uniformly through the whole product independently of its quantity and shape. These processing characteristics combined with improved food microbiological safety, less energy expenditure, low concentration of waste products and longer shelf life make high-pressure processing a very promising novel food technology. Combined with lower cost of treatment (but unfortunately higher initial cost of equipment) compared to traditional processing technologies, it is also economically profitable. The main purpose of such treated food products are in preservation of sensory, nutritive and textural properties. As the temperature increase is very low, there are no significant changes in sensory properties, in contrast to conventional thermal processing (sterilization, pasteurization). However, with the combination of heating or cooling and high pressure, modification of existing and creation of new food products is possible. Today, high pressure is used for the treatment of meat products (inactivation of microorganisms), freezing and defrosting of foodstuffs, production of fruit juices (pasteurization), processing of oysters, modification".

It was left to Japan to recognize the merits of HPP first and products like juices, jams and jellies became the first commercial products marketed by using this process. To day a wide range of foods like fish, meat, salad dressings, rice cakes, yogurts etc are shelf-stabilized using HPP. Only limitation for this process is that some enzymes are not inactivated leading to possible quality deterioration during extended storage. Similarly some spores are not affected, especially under low acidic environment, calling for combining HPP with other techniques for complete sterility. HPP works extremely well under acidic conditions where proteins get denatured, hydrogen bonds are fortified, non-covalent bonds are disrupted and nutrients are unaffected. High investment need for setting up the plant will naturally reflect on the cost of processing and products from HPP line are bound to be more expensive to the consumer. Probably fish and meat may remain the most suitable candidate for HPP technology because of their high value.

V.H.POTTY
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http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

"NEW" EMERGING TECHNOLOGY FOR PASTEURIZATION-FOR BETTER FOOD SAFETY

Pasteurization is an age-old process which had given the food processing industry the initial impetus and present day aseptic packing process is the crowning glory for the fraternity of food technologists. Thousands of liquid and semi-liquid food products are prepared to day using this technology with quality comparable to their fresh counter parts and with relatively high degree of safety. While old pasteurization process developed by Louis Pasteur was based on a temperature-time relationship that ensures destruction of pathogenic bacteria, modern day techniques have progressively brought down the time of heating with process time coming down to a few seconds minimizing chemical, physical and flavor changes due to heat. . In contrast solid foods are mostly processed using chemical fumigants which bring about destruction of undesirable infestation causing vectors. A new process developed recently claims pasteurization of even solid foods with low water activity which is now being offered for commercial application.

"A stand-alone dry goods pasturization system from pasturization specialists Buhler Barth and Log5 Corporation won a coveted Innovation Award at this week's Institute of Food Technologist's (IFT) Annual Meeting and Food Expo, staged in Chicago, Illinois. Their Controlled Condensation Process Pasteurization (CCP) Technology pasteurizes low water activity foods such as tree nuts, peanuts, spices, grains and preserves the natural quality of the food, according to the judges. "The technology maintains thermal equilibrium by controlling pressure, temperature, surface condensation and moisture levels," stated the judges' citation. A Buhler Barth spokesperson told FoodProductionDaily.com at the IFT event:"The CCP system is natural involving no chemcials and can actually pasteurize in shell peanuts. Also the process involves no moisture pick up of the peanuts andtree nuts during pasteurization." In addition, the process is said to preserve the original appearance, flavour and texture of the nuts without the cooked flavour notes (of some processes). Trials have shown that it can deliver a guaranteed 5 log reduction in thesalmonella surrogate species E. faecium. The system can be installed before or after an existing (continuous belt) roaster for the production of roasted and pasteurised peanuts. A four step process, CCP involves: Conditioning or preheating close to the thermal equilibrium, equilibration to the thermal equilibrium, pasteurization and restoration or the removal of excessive surface moisture. Processing capacity can reach 20t an hour (44,000 lbs/hour). Operating costs are said to total 0.5 cents per pound processed".

Increased incidence of microbial contamination of low moisture products like walnuts, peanuts, spices, grains etc being encountered lately has been a cause of worry and probably this technology may be the answer to the need of the industry. While spices have been included in the list of commodities that can be pasteurized by using the above process, it is not clear how far they can be freed from molds which affect spices like pepper, ginger, peanuts and many others. Exports from many developing countries are often affected by reported presence of molds and toxins like Aflatoxin and with high capacity plants being offered it is worth while exploring its suitability for the purpose.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com