Food safety risks of raw and unpasteurised milk

Abstract

Milk is a nutritious substance which is important both in health and culture in today’s world, but also presents certain food safety risks if not treated properly, or hygiene standards are not done properly. In today’s emerging trends on healthy habits raw milk has been put on the spotlight as being an unaltered substance with great benefits, however, there is no solid scientific backing towards this mentality, and thus is putting a lot of people at risk since raw milk is a very good medium to convey dangerous zoonotic diseases. Nowadays even raw milk vending machines are being placed all over the world, showing there is a demand for the substance and some sort of retailing, but the question is how is this being regulated? With all the scientific literature available currently on the hazards present it can be clearly seen unpasteurized milk cannot be controlled correctly as the level of zoonotic pathogens dangerous to human health is unacceptable, especially when considering certain high risk groups like those infected with HIV/AIDS or immunocompromised individuals. It is also a major problem with farmers, farm staff, families living on farm with no access to heating material and possibly even veterinarians as an occupational hazard since drinking unpasteurized milk from the cow is common practice among this certain group of individuals be it for convenience sake or just to save on additional expenidtures on farm. Several papers reviewed here bring to light the presence of many dangerous disease causing pathogens such as Mycobacteria, Salmonella, Listeria, Brucella etc. and the various techniques to screen for them in raw milk and test for several other factors such as antibiotic resistance.