In the mid-1800s, the germ theory of disease was finally rooted in the minds of scientists and doctors. It took a bit longer for the idea that food, too, can cause microbial disease to be accepted. Not until 1864, when Louis Pasteur discovered pasteurization, did the cause-and-effect connection between microbes and food-borne illness become apparent. Soon, laws were enacted to require pasteurization of milk- to protect against disease. Now, society is retrogressing.
A Bit of History
The need to preserve food from becoming rancid and causing disease was appreciated millennia ago. Evidence shows that as early as 12,000 BCE, folks living in the Middle East and oriental cultures actively dried foods in the hot sun. Spice merchants (especially the pepper trade) became exceedingly rich during the late Middle Ages as increased trade and exploration required long-term preservation, achievable by salting and peppering foods. Freezing [1], fermenting, pickling (in vinegar – an acid environment discourages bacterial growth), curing, and ultimately canning were utilized to preserve meat, fish, fruit, and vegetables over the following centuries. (Not all attempts were successful; deaths from Sir John Franklin’s “Valiant Voyage” to find the Northwest Passage via Canada in 1848 were attributed to lead found in tinned foods).
However, milk remained a prime source of disease, especially in children, until pasteurization was implemented. Initially, securing pasteurized milk became a practice of the wealthy. But the disease toll on the impoverished young was monumental. In New York City’s orphan asylum, forty-four percent of the children died in 1897, more than half from contaminated milk. Due to the population influx into cities, cows were pastured farther and farther away from the point of consumption, and as the distance increased, so did the likelihood of contamination en route.
Pasteurization
Pasteurization involves heating milk to a temperature of 145°F (63°C) for 30 minutes or by heating it to 161°F (72°C) for at least 15 seconds. The process kills bacteria, such as Listeria, Salmonella, E.coli, and Campylobacter, along with some viruses, including the Avian flu. While currently all states allow the sale of raw milk, 20 states limit sales to the point of product generation, i.e., at the farm, and 11 states allow raw milk to be sold in retail stores. The FDA forbade interstate transport and sale as of 1987. However, it is feared this may change, as there is a growing fan base for raw milk and raw milk products touted, based on unsupported claims, on supplying nutritional benefits not found in the pasteurized version.
The Dangers of Raw Milk
Implementing commercial pasteurization was a response to an epidemic of bovine (cow) tuberculosis in the early 1900s that killed an estimated 65,000 people over 25 years from consuming contaminated dairy. As dangerous as raw milk is to adults, the real horrors come when children, the aged, infirm, or those deficient in natural immunity.
“In the mid-19th century, the leading causes of child mortality were diseases like tuberculosis spread by milk; in 1841, half of all children under the age of five in New York City died, many from the type of intestinal infections bad milk could lead to…. In 1891, bad milk was directly linked to 23 percent of the deaths in children under three in New York City. This was especially so in the impoverished, overcrowded and often fetid environment of the Lower East Side,” where fully 24 percent of babies died before their first birthday.
The Man Behind Macy’s
The state of affairs changed dramatically due to the actions of Nathan Strauss, the founder of Macy’s. In 1893, Straus began setting up “milk depots” throughout Lower Manhattan, which provided safe, pasteurized milk for just a penny a glass. In 1894, he opened the first “milk laboratories” to test and ensure the pasteurization process worked and that the milk was safe for distribution. In the first year of its operation, the plant produced and tested 34,000 bottles of milk. The deaths in the orphan asylum rate dropped to 20 percent. Over the next four years, 20,111 children were fed pasteurized milk supplied by Nathan Strauss. Only six died. During the first decade of the milk laboratory’s operation, the child mortality rate in New York City dropped from 126 per thousand to 74.5. In 1898, Strauss became NYC’s Commissioner of Health. In[BB1] 1905, the new NYC Health Commissioner began investigating the connection between raw milk consumption and disease, and shortly thereafter, pasteurization became a legal requirement in NYC.
Not content with furnishing the healthful food only in NY, Strauss’s crusade supported 297 milk stations in 36 cities nationwide, dispensing more than 24 million glasses and bottles of milk over a quarter-century. The US infant mortality rate dropped from 125.1 per thousand in 1891 to 15.8 by 1925. Straus was estimated to have saved 445,800 children’s lives, and his crusade for mandatory pasteurization indirectly saved millions more. [2]
How Times Have Changed
Last month, the California Department of Public Health issued a voluntary recall against Raw Farms, which produced raw milk that tested positive for H5N1 or bird flu. He believes it will take two months before his cows develop immunity to Avian Flu, and he is using another raw milk farm to supply the shelves with his product. Raw Milk’s CEO, Mark McAfee, is said to have been asked to become the “raw milk advisor” to the Trump Administration’s HSS.
“Regulators like the FDA are using avian flu as an excuse to take action against raw milk.
What they don’t want is for raw milk to thrive, and that’s a political decision they made years ago.”
Complaining that the folks back east (the FDA) are pressuring him, one wonders whether Mr. McAfee’s political take and stake influence his outcry.
States are free to set their regulations regarding raw milk despite the FDA prohibition on interstate transport. Nevertheless, the shifting nutritional beliefs at the FDA and USDA under the new administration may herald an end to these restrictions. Commercial implementation of pasteurization wasn’t born out of convenience but of necessity, forged in the crucible of child mortality and deadly epidemics. Public health advances are hard-won -- and easily lost. In this case, the cost could be measured in unnecessary food-borne illness, not just nostalgia.
[1] Clarence Birdseye is the most important figure in the history of commercial frozen food. In 1928, he invented the double belt freezer, the forerunner of modern freezing technology, and two years later, he introduced a line of frozen foods to the public, including vegetables, fruits, fish fillets, 18 cuts of meat, and even Blue Point oysters.
[2] Nathan Strauss and his brothers were well-known philanthropists and civic leaders. Nathan, his wife, and his brother and wife were due to return to the US from a trip to Palestine on the Titanic. Nathan broke a leg, so he and his wife stayed behind. Isadore and Ida drowned. Upon realizing he had been spared, Nathan redoubled his philanthropic efforts. During the winter of 1914–15, he served 1,135,731 penny meals for the unemployed from his milk depots in New York City.
