Raw milk outbreak sickens 14 in Utah—a state with loose laws, bad track record

Frodo Douchebaggins

Ars Legatus Legionis
12,176
Subscriptor
I've often idly wondered what raw milk is like, as I am a person who very much enjoys a tall glass of so-cold-it-has-little-ice-crystals-in-it whole milk if I am lucky enough to get to have cookies or a brownie or something.

But unfortunately I already have experience with salmonella so I know what it's like to shit and puke so much for a week that I would accept the bony embrace of the reaper, so I'm not really willing to chance it.
 
Upvote
267 (273 / -6)
Post content hidden for low score. Show…

JudgeMental

Ars Centurion
351
Subscriptor++
I've often idly wondered what raw milk is like, as I am a person who very much enjoys a tall glass of so-cold-it-has-little-ice-crystals-in-it whole milk if I am lucky enough to get to have cookies or a brownie or something.

But unfortunately I already have experience with salmonella so I know what it's like to shit and puke so much for a week that I would accept the bony embrace of the reaper, so I'm not really willing to chance it.
I'm not really a milk connoisseur, but the times I've had raw milk (friends/family farm situation) I didn't notice an appreciable difference. Fresher milk is better milk is most I could say, so it's really a matter of locality.
 
Upvote
97 (98 / -1)

Aurich

Director of Many Things
41,420
Ars Staff
not being able to buy raw milk in a lot of places is pretty ridiculous though, considering things that are legal to buy in places especially.
Just curious, which of the "legal to buy" things that you're thinking of cause diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever, headache, nausea,and vomiting, which can last for up to a week?

I'm struggling to think of any.
 
Upvote
211 (224 / -13)
Post content hidden for low score. Show…

Thegs

Ars Scholae Palatinae
910
Subscriptor++
If only there was an industrial process to do this for them beforehand!
My favorite raw milk fun fact is I was reading about raw milk on some sort of wellness blog for some reason (probably because I hate myself). They were hitting the usual points, raw milk is "better" for you, tastes better, is more "natural". But, like all natural products it can be unsafe, so they recommended heating it on the stovetop to 145F for 30 minutes, just to be sure.

This has lived rent-free in my head for the past few years, partly because I'm not sure if this wasn't some long-con psyop the FDA was running against the wellness-woo groups.
 
Upvote
221 (224 / -3)

thekevinmonster

Smack-Fu Master, in training
52
Subscriptor
I've often idly wondered what raw milk is like, as I am a person who very much enjoys a tall glass of so-cold-it-has-little-ice-crystals-in-it whole milk if I am lucky enough to get to have cookies or a brownie or something.

But unfortunately I already have experience with salmonella so I know what it's like to shit and puke so much for a week that I would accept the bony embrace of the reaper, so I'm not really willing to chance it.
It tastes like milk.

I've had raw milk. I went to a farm day summer camp for a few years when I was middle-school-age. We got to milk cows and collect chicken eggs and get pecked by turkeys (they're assholes) and all sorts of other fun farm-adjacent stuff in addition to typical "go hiking" and "go to the swimming lake" kids camp stuff. It was just activity stuff, the REAL farm work was done by employees because there's a lot of it and it's hard. They used powered milking machines and had homogenization and pasteurizing equipment on site.

When we milked cows, we got to just have some in a glass to try it. I'm not entirely sure how safe it was to do that - considering it had just literally come out of the teat, perhaps it hadn't had time to grow anything and there'd only be whatever was on the teat, which they cleaned before they let us go for it. Considering our ages and the fact that we'd run around all day and go swim in a lake, maybe it's not so bad. It's not like they purified the lake water to remove giardia etc.

You really don't want to be drinking un-homogenized, un-pasteurized milk. Pasteurized for the obvious reason in this article; homogenized because when you let milk sit around, the cream separates and you end up with chunks of fat/cream in your milk. It's kind of gross. You can have this experience if you buy non-homogenized (but still pasteurized) milk at the grocery. Why do they sell it like that? People get all fussy about having things be 'processed' and altered and want it as 'natural' as possible.
 
Upvote
140 (147 / -7)

zealite

Seniorius Lurkius
40
Just curious, which of the "legal to buy" things that you're thinking of cause diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever, headache, nausea,and vomiting, which can last for up to a week?

I'm struggling to think of any.
Beer covers 5 of the 6, amusingly.

Source: I was a graduate student once.
 
Upvote
211 (211 / 0)
I stayed overnight at a campground. In the morning, another camper offered me a gallon of milk. He was from Utah, and used to the fresh wholesome raw stuff and found he couldn't stomach the pasteurized store-bought version.

He also complained that despite all the tax dollars he had paid, the restroom at the campground was not ADA-compliant. The campground was in Canada.
 
Upvote
179 (180 / -1)

dagar9

Ars Tribunus Militum
1,923
Subscriptor
Just curious, which of the "legal to buy" things that you're thinking of cause diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever, headache, nausea,and vomiting, which can last for up to a week?

I'm struggling to think of any.
If you're dead, you're spared most of those other symptoms.
 
Upvote
30 (32 / -2)
Post content hidden for low score. Show…

Blake_V

Seniorius Lurkius
27
You really don't want to be drinking un-homogenized, un-pasteurized milk. Pasteurized for the obvious reason in this article; homogenized because when you let milk sit around, the cream separates and you end up with chunks of fat/cream in your milk. It's kind of gross. You can have this experience if you buy non-homogenized (but still pasteurized) milk at the grocery. Why do they sell it like that? People get all fussy about having things be 'processed' and altered and want it as 'natural' as possible.
Well, you need un-homogenized milk for cheese and I think it's generally better for cooking.
But un-pasteurized is just a health hazard (and illegal where I live).
 
Upvote
59 (61 / -2)
Post content hidden for low score. Show…

dagar9

Ars Tribunus Militum
1,923
Subscriptor
You really don't want to be drinking un-homogenized, un-pasteurized milk. Pasteurized for the obvious reason in this article; homogenized because when you let milk sit around, the cream separates and you end up with chunks of fat/cream in your milk. It's kind of gross. You can have this experience if you buy non-homogenized (but still pasteurized) milk at the grocery. Why do they sell it like that? People get all fussy about having things be 'processed' and altered and want it as 'natural' as possible.
My mom liked it because she could skim the cream for her coffee, and we drank more-or-less 2%.

But this was in the days where milk was delivered by a milkman, left on your porch in the little semi-insulated box that sat there.
 
Upvote
59 (59 / 0)

Pooga

Ars Scholae Palatinae
1,354
Subscriptor++
Hang on a second, so 300 people have been sickened - not even killed, but just sickened - in a country of 300M+, since 2009? Why is this a story?
Because they were sickened by ignoring basic scientific knowledge that has been available for centuries in favor of their "it's better because it's natural" mindset? The kind of thing that is exactly encompassed by Dr. Mole's regular beat on Ars?
 
Upvote
172 (179 / -7)
Post content hidden for low score. Show…

Lemurs

Ars Scholae Palatinae
1,467
Subscriptor++
I've often idly wondered what raw milk is like, as I am a person who very much enjoys a tall glass of so-cold-it-has-little-ice-crystals-in-it whole milk if I am lucky enough to get to have cookies or a brownie or something.

But unfortunately I already have experience with salmonella so I know what it's like to shit and puke so much for a week that I would accept the bony embrace of the reaper, so I'm not really willing to chance it.
The secret is to find dairies that slow pasteurize their milk, instead of the far more common fast or ultra pasteurization process. Slow pasteurization happens at a lower temperature, for longer. It's just as safe, but it breaks down the proteins and enzymes FAR less. It's noticeably more delicious, IMO. You'll often find that local and small dairies do this because it helps justify their higher costs. You'll definitely pay more for the milk, but it's worth it. (IMO)

http://www.farmerscreamery.com/our-process/low-temp-pasteurization/
 
Upvote
61 (66 / -5)

Frodo Douchebaggins

Ars Legatus Legionis
12,176
Subscriptor
The secret is to find dairies that slow pasteurize their milk, instead of the far more common fast or ultra pasteurization process. Slow pasteurization happens at a lower temperature, for longer. It's just as safe, but it breaks down the proteins and enzymes FAR less. It's noticeably more delicious, IMO. You'll often find that local and small dairies do this because it helps justify their higher costs. You'll definitely pay more for the milk, but it's worth it. (IMO)

http://www.farmerscreamery.com/our-process/low-temp-pasteurization/
Like sous vide, but milk!
 
Upvote
53 (53 / 0)