One of the most exciting things that has happened with this blog over the past year is a large increase in the international readership. This is exciting to me as they bring a unique perspective to the discussion, contribute suggestions and ask questions that those of us living in the United States have perhaps never considered before.
One question that I’ve been getting recently, particularly from readers in India and Eastern Europe, is how to consume raw dairy safely when the cleanliness of the source is questionable.
People in these countries typically boil their raw milk first before drinking. Â However, the information they were reading on this blog and elsewhere about the health benefits of raw milk had prompted them to reconsider this practice. Â They wanted to start consuming fresh dairy in order to enjoy the significantly improved nutritional profile of milk that has been completely unheated.
What to do in this situation? Â I put this question to Tim Wightman, President of the Farm to Consumer Foundation and grassbased farmer extraordinaire to see what he had to say.
Three Methods for Ensuring Raw Milk Quality
If you are unsure of your raw milk source or are using it for the first time and are not yet 100% comfortable with your decision, try one or all of these methods to set your mind at ease:
- Buy only small amounts of raw milk at a time and use up within one to three days. Bacteria that cause food borne illness with the exception of Campylobactor require more than a few days to develop in the quantities necessary to cause human illness.
- Make homemade (unheated) kefir with the raw milk before consuming. Â If the milk is of questionable quality, the kefir won’t set right and the end result will be whey and milk solids or a very runny kefir that won’t be desirable for consumption.
- Probably the best way to drink raw milk and have peace of mind even if you are not completely sure of the cleanliness of your source is to freeze the milk for two weeks first before thawing and then drinking. Â Food or drink frozen for that period of time is considered safe to consume. Â As a bonus, raw milk that is frozen and thawed that ends up quite close to its original form with only just a few very small milk solids floating around is a good indication of quality milk.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
If freezing milk for two weeks will ensure the safety of milk then why can’t we buy milk at grocery stores that have been frozen instead of this homogenized crap. Oh! The government wants us to die, slowly.
My family is moving to Africa and we’ve been told we have to boil all raw milk. We’ve been paying a lot of money for a couple years for good raw milk in the States and just can’t even think about boiling it, but I know there are things involved that I can’t control. We will not have access to a freezer since we will live without electricity. So, we’ve been told by one person we can just boil it for the least amount of time at the lowest possible temperature to be safe. Any suggestions?
Put some cayenne in it!
Where are you moving to, in Africa, Jodie? We drank raw milk from the store with no problems in Namibia.
Vicky, I am replying to a post of yours that’s more than a year old, I hope you’ll read this and reply. Please let me know where you get your raw milk from in Namibia as I would love to get some?
So glad to know you can freeze raw milk! I just found a source and wanted to buy more, but I didn’t think I could freeze it.
Thank you:-)
I am visiting a farm this afternoon in hopes of finding a great source for raw milk. Does anyone have great tips on what to look for and what to ask while there? (even a resource would be great, thanks)! 🙂
When discussing raw milk, why do we never mention the smell of the milk? Or is it that we have gotten so far removed from our senses, or our sources, that most people don’t know when milk has gone bad? As a dairy farmer for 25 years, I drank raw milk and never thought a thing about it. But when the milk smelled sour, or when the glands in my mouth, in the lower back next to my jaw bone on the outside of my tongue reacted, then that milk became pet food, and I got some fresh. Raw milk is a living food, and has a limited shelf life of 3-5 days. Research done at my ag school 45 years ago showed a slight LOWERING of bacteria for the first 12-14 hours after milking, and then a steady rise. Keeping raw milk cold at all times is essential to extend the shelf life beyond a single day. Pasteurization kills off all bacteria, including the “marker bacteria” that give off odors as they grow, indicating the same growth conditions as the pathogens. So if we trusted our senses and we smell our raw milk and it doesn’t small fresh, then don’t drink it…. Many a time I have smelled pasteurized milk and it smelled fine, but as soon as I taste it, it is yuk! and spit it out! Often raw milk will smell off and taste fine, but in that case it is time to get fresh. If Public Health officials were REALLY interested in public health, they would encourage the establishment of small dairies all over, and make fresh milk more easily available so your supply could always be fresh, not suppressing it’s availability. Suppression reveals that they are actually pursuing a policy of public un-health.
Hi Sarah!
Im from India, where we always boil milk before drinking. This article has been a great help to me and I cant wait to try out the freezing technique!
But I have a question. I used to buy milk from another farmer some time back whose milk dint spoil even though I had kept it in the fridge (not freezer) for over a week.
He closed down, so I buy from another farmer who swears that his milk is organic but I find that if I keep the milk for a day in the fridge, it spoils the next day (I boil the milk, and it curdles). Is this an indication of bad raw milk?
Thanks in advance! 🙂
Hi Sarah – My family tried raw milk for the first time today. We got it from a farm with an excellent reputation. However, after drinking it, both my daughter and I had tummy aches. My husband felt fine. Why would this be?
Thanks!
I don’t have trouble finding raw milk in our village (Serbia, Europe) – there are still farmers who have cows and you just go and pick it up daily (that’s how I grew up). But we always do boil it. I am a bit afraid to use it for children raw, especially since one of our children was hospitalized for campylobacter a few years ago. Still I think boiled fresh milk is better than pasterized and homogenized, right?
interesting. I’m really skeptical about freezing, however. Some types of food born illness are caused by the toxin that the bacteria produces, not by the actual bacteria. The toxin is very stable and is not destroyed by heat or cold. I have always wondered why Sally Fallon is so confident that freezing liver will render it safe to eat raw. I eat raw liver but I don’t believe that freezing it makes it any safer.