Written by Weston A Price
Foundation |
Friday, 14 June 2013 14:42
|
(WASHINGTON, DC, June 11, 2013)-Three quantitative microbial
risk assessments (QMRAs) recently published in the Journal of
Food Protection have demonstrated that unpasteurized milk is a
low-risk food, contrary to previous, inappropriately-evidenced
claims suggesting a high-risk profile. These scholarly papers,
along with dozens of others, were reviewed on May 16, 2013 at
the Centre for Disease Control in Vancouver, BC (Canada), during
a special scientific Grand Rounds presentation entitled
“Unpasteurized milk: myths and evidence.”
The reviewer, Nadine Ijaz, MSc, demonstrated how inappropriate
evidence has long been mistakenly used to affirm the “myth” that
raw milk is a high-risk food, as it was in the 1930s. Today,
green leafy vegetables are the most frequent cause of food-borne
illness in the United States. British Columbia CDC’s Medical
Director of Environmental Health Services, Dr. Tom Kosatsky, who
is also Scientific Director of Canada's National Collaborating
Centre for Environmental Health, welcomed Ms. Ijaz’s invited
presentation as “up-to-date” and “a very good example of
knowledge synthesis and risk communication.”
Quantitative microbial risk assessment is considered the
gold-standard in food safety evidence, a standard recommended by
the United Nations body Codex Alimentarius, and affirmed as an
important evidencing tool by both the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration and Health Canada. The scientific papers cited at
the BC Centre for Disease Control presentation demonstrated a
low risk of illness from unpasteurized milk consumption for each
of the pathogens
Campylobacter, Shiga-toxin inducing E. coli, Listeria
monocytogenes and Staphylococcus aureus. This low risk profile
applied to healthy adults as well as members of
immunologically-susceptible groups: pregnant women, children
and the elderly.
Given that these QMRAs appear to contradict a long-held
scientific view that raw milk is a high-risk food, Ms. Ijaz
noted (in line with United Nations standards) that it is
important to confirm their accuracy using food-borne outbreak
data . The accuracy of recent QMRA findings was scientifically
demonstrated using a combination of peer-reviewed data and
Ijaz’s own recent scholarly working paper, which analysed U.S.
outbreak data for raw milk using accepted methodologies.
Peer-reviewed outbreak data confirming a negligible risk of
illness from Listeria monocytogenes in raw milk was particularly
notable, and demonstrates the inaccuracy of a high-risk
designation given to raw milk in an older U.S. government risk
assessment for Listeria. The forty-year worldwide absence of
listeriosis cases from raw milk presented in a 2013 scholarly
review, and affirmed in the QMRA results published in 2011, is
attributed by European reviewers to the protective action of
non-harmful bacteria found in raw milk.
“While it is clear that there remains some appreciable risk of
food-borne illness from raw milk consumption, public health
bodies should now update their policies and informational
materials to reflect the most high-quality evidence, which
characterizes this risk as low,” said Ijaz. “Raw milk producers
should continue to use rigorous management practices to minimize
any possible remaining risk.”
Ms. Ijaz used extensive high-quality evidence to further
deconstruct various scientific myths from both raw milk
advocates and detractors. As Ijaz pointed out, increasing
evidence of raw farm milk’s unique health benefits to young
children, as well as the possible detriments of industrial milk
production practices, will need to be carefully considered in
future risk analyses. She recommended an honest,
evidence-informed dialogue on raw milk issues between producers,
consumers, advocates, legislators and public health officials.
"The BC CDC should be commended for recognizing this important
research on raw milk safety," said Sally Fallon Morell,
president of the Weston A. Price Foundation, a non-profit
nutrition education foundation that provides information on the
health benefits of raw, whole milk from pastured cows. "I look
forward to productive discussion with the US CDC and Food and
Drug Administration in light of this new scientific evidence."
####
Contact: Liz Reitzig, Hartke Communications
Lizreitzig@gmail.com
301-807-5063
References and interviews available upon request.
To view the May 16, 2013 Grand Rounds presentation from the B.C.
Centre for Disease Control, visit:
http://www.bccdc.ca/util/about/UBCCDC/GrandRounds/default.htm
Direct presentation link:
http://phsa.mediasite.com/mediasite/Play/b54b4be24bab4f4581ef0fdd8023d38d1d |