About Raw Goat Milk. Things are serious when the state police stop and seize raw milk, rather harks back to prohibition days doesn’t it? However this has occurred in the USA. The whole subject of raw and unpasteurized goats milk has been simmering in the US and also Australia.
However like everything else, it’s market driven and there is a rising demand from health-conscious consumers. They can’t seem to declare why it’s unsafe, at least they can in general terms, and it’s all about perceived risk. Authorities cannot even quote any reported cases where people have fallen ill or contacted any disease or condition.
I suspect far more people get sick from strictly controlled fast food outlets than from goats milk or even cows milk for that matter. Some goat milk people I know say its all a conspiracy by cow milk farmers and the industry, perceiving that the miniscule goat milk industry is getting favorable advantages. Whatever the arguments it’s always controversial.
Of course folk have been only drinking raw goat’s milk since the 8th or 9th century B.C. In fact millions do around the globe on a daily basis, but let’s not facts get in the way of a good bit of bureaucracy. We all know that raw milk is very rich in both fat and protein and we all know that milk can contain a range of potentially hazardous pathogens.
In some basic milk history it was Louis Pasteur back in the year 1862. Pasteurization is the process of heating milk to a high temperature for a short period and then rapid cooling, this kills off the various pathogens that can include campylobacter, escherichia, listeria, salmonella, yersinia, brucella and others, and one can understand the public health issue here just as was the case back in the 1800’s. In the US around 200-300 people get sick from drinking raw milk or cheese, and these are it would seem all cows milk related. Whether goat’s milk is involved seems hard to establish anywhere.
Those that do drink raw goat’s milk have a rather different outlook. Raw milk contains immunoglobulins, and the enzymes lipase and phosphatase and these are normally inactivated when pasteurizing milk. Also many beneficial bacteria, proteins and enzymes are also destroyed. As goat milk devotees know the milk is very easy on digestion, and this is also due to the fact that goat’s milk fat globules are some 20% of cows milk.
Many issues arise out of raw goat milk induced illness, one is animal husbandry and the other major one is dairy parlour cleanliness and sanitization regimes. Clean practices yield clean milk and the whole issue gets muddied by poor producers.
In Australia, the state of NSW must have a warning on the milk carton or bottle label of raw goat milk that is sold in various health food stores that is Warning, Unpasteurized milk, and that along with much stricter producer standards substantially mitigates the whole issue and the customer gets what they want. Having owned a dairy herd I can’t do without my fresh raw goat milk, and why should anyone else.