Is it safe to drink raw milk?

I wouldn't!

NOOooooooooo
There is a good reason why the milkman milk is pasteurised. You can catch all sorts of diseases from unpasteurised milk

My husband has been advised to drink raw milk as he has digestive problems and the natural bacteria would apparently help. But the hoops the farmers have to jump through to make it safe means there's nowhere locally to obtain it. We have had milk straight from the cow when we were too young to know better and it was the best, most delicious I'd ever had but now knowing more about TB etc we certainly wouldn't drink raw milk if it wasn't full tested and passed for consumption.

JO4
Here's the long answer

Thank you Jane. So it's a bit like the number of people blinded by dog poo - not that I agree with not picking up poo. (Except those horrible people who bag it and then hang it on my hedge!)

No! Jane I did not have to read this whole thing to spot a glaring problem with it. They cite numbers made sick by raw milk and then say - well that's a small number so that means that raw milk is not risky.
Ignoring the fact that a very small number of people actually consume the stuff in the first place. Given that all milkman milk, supermarket milk and shop milk is pasteurised. You have to try quite hard to get some, fortunately.
People who write this kind of quasi-scientific rubbish are the same ilk that preach the evils of vaccination I am afraid. Dangerous.

I would drink it under the following circumanstances
- the herd are healthy and well cared for by a vet
- I wasn't pregnant or suffering from a condition that lowered my immunity
raw milk is delicious!

Jess I have to confess I didn't critically read the blog in its entirety
My main motive in posting was to try out the technique for converting hyperlinks as kindly explained to me by JO4 earlier today
However, I did note that no-one died from drinking raw milk between 1992 and 2009.
I think susiecb's advice is very sensible and I would go along with that.

Well done the hyperlink manoeuvre - onwards and upwards.
I would only have to think where the udders have been.
Once did battle with a public footpath in shropshire that was also used as a route to and from milking parlour. Wading through the stuff we were.

A friend of the family once contracted brucellosis after drinking raw milk - it sounded very debilitating. So it isn't only TB you have to beware of.

The thread disappeared so I didn't see the 'no' advice. And by the time the thread came back up I had texted her "yes. it'll be fine".

Oh heck. I hope susie is right.

It's in France. In the bit close to England. Weather nice, so no mud on udders.

OH MY GOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just read Annobel's post.



She was vaccinated against TB when young. (my uncle had it)

I remember us having fresh milk when we went camping in France when we were kids... my little brother aged 6 (wisely ?) refused it until it was washed!

Daughter has got two large bottles of it in the fridge. It is from the small farm attached to the gite they are staying in.

She is going to have it on her cereal tomorrow morning, then make bread and butter pudding and eggy bread to finish it up.

I'm sure it will be ok. You can actually buy it online!

When we worked on a dairy farm in the seventies, we had a four pint churn that I took to the dairy every morning. After milking the dairyman would fill it with milk that had been filtered and chilled and I collected it later in the morning. All the farm staff did the same. It was delicious and icy cold. We cleaned the churn by leaving it filled with salty water overnight which removed the milk deposits (like little bits of sand) that would otherwise cling to the sides. Following all the hygiene precautions meant there were never any problems.

Oh even better j04 Raw milk that has been sent through the post. Let me at it. Bacterial smoothie here I come.
She should drink it after boiling.

Jess

I'm a bit worried about the slow cooking involved in the bread and butter pudding tbh.

I don't know whether to spoil the fun by saying anything or not. She has got another week in taly ahead of her. [nail biting]

Where did taly come from!

Italy.

Where's my bed.