British Columbia’s Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) has stepped in to warn the public to throw out unpasteurized products from a “raw dairy” at Chilliwack.
Through a continuing investigation by public health officials from Vancouver Coastal Health and Fraser Health, the BCCDC’s labs recently tested unpasteurized raw milk, yogurt, cream, butter and cream cheese from Chilliwack-based Home on the Range, which distributes to various outlets in B.C.’s Lower Mainland.
“Of these samples, five tested positive for fecal contamination,” the centre said, which means the products “were contaminated with germs from the bowels of animals or humans.”
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Consuming the unpasteurized products carries a “very high” risk of disease, the centre said, and can lead to serious illness in people, especially young children, the elderly, and those with weakened immune systems.
“This should serve as another strong warning that drinking unpasteurized milk can result in illness, long-lasting serious diseases, or even death,” provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall said in a separate statement Tuesday. “Disease-causing bacteria found in unpasteurized milk include E. coli, salmonella and campylobacter.”
Kendall added that there is “no research to substantiate the claims that raw milk has better nutritional and medicinal qualities than pasteurized milk. As recent outbreaks demonstrate, even raw milk with a normal appearance from apparently healthy cows can contain bacteria with the potential to cause human illness.”
By law, all milk sold or distributed in B.C. must be pasteurized, which raises milk to temperatures high enough to kill harmful bacteria. “This is not a new public health protection idea,” Kendall said, noting commercial pasteurization dates back to 1895.
Any perceived health benefits of drinking raw milk, he wrote, are “most certainly offset by the serious risks of contracting disease.”
Consumption of raw milk in B.C. is “limited,” Kendall said, but noted “several outbreaks” of disease caused by this practice.
“Sadly, some of these illnesses occurred in children who were given raw milk by well-intentioned parents,” Kendall said. “All parents should realize that children are among those at highest risk, as they tend to consume more milk.
Home on the Range’s products were tested at Ethical Kitchen of North Vancouver and two Vancouver outlets, Controversial Kitchen and Ayurveda, the BCCDC said Tuesday.
Home on the Range also distributes products to Anita’s Pharmacy of Burnaby, Ladybug Organics in the Surrey/Langley area and Rockwell Farms of Abbotsford, the centre said in a provincial release.
Raw milk is at the centre of a court battle in Ontario where a dairy farmer seeking to circumvent that province’s mandatory pasteurization requirements introduced a “cow share” program.
According to a report last week in Toronto’s Globe and Mail, a judge’s decision is expected within weeks on charges against farmer Michael Schmidt related to distribution of raw milk.
