‘The Royal Society – the UK’s national academy of science – has today named the fridge, pasteurised milk, and the tin can as the three most significant inventions in the history of food and drink. These relatively modern innovations outscored more ancient inventions including the fishing net, the plough, and the cork. A steering group of Royal Society Fellows – including a Nobel Prize Winner – judged each innovation on four criteria: accessibility, productivity, aesthetics, and health.’
So said Epicurus Communications in a press release this morning….
The fridge and the tin can I am prepared to go along with – but pasteurised milk? There is some question as to whether the pasteurisation of milk has in fact been a step backwards, rather than forwards, as it destroys not only potentially harmful bacteria in milk but the majority of good ones as well. Raw milk enthusiasts (and many others) believe that good dairy hygiene obviates the need for pasteurisation and that, in fact, it was better dairy hygiene that led to the drop in milk borne infections which is usually credited to the introduction of pasteurisation. For more on the debate follow the links from this piece and this post and this article in Caduceus – and you might also want to check out the research which suggests that raw milk may help control respiratory conditions – here and here.
But meanwhile….. What about the electric mixer or the food processor ? Although, to be fair, those were more earth-shattering for cooks than for the food industry in general. Although anything which turns four hours of slog with a wooden spoon and a bowl (the suggested mixing time for fruit cakes in several of my early 19th century cookbooks) into three minutes of nasty noise at the flick of a switch has to be pretty far up there in my book!
Or, in terms of bleakness for the future of agriculture and the human race, terminator seeds?….. Athough I guess that would be thrown out of this particular competition as being agricultural rather than strictly food and drink….
Any other suggestions?
It is one of the health scandals of the 20th century that the nanny state has made it almost impossible for the many people who appreciate the health giving benefits of unpasteurised milk to from benefit from it.
Pasteurised milk is an unmitigated disaster in terms of hygiene and animal welfare in the dairy industry. Why bother with hygiene when heat treatment will dispose of the pathogens. Not dissimilar to the circumstances surrounding the early use of antibiotics which lead many health professionals to the conclusion that strict hygiene was no longer necessary as antibiotics sort resulting infections.
Look where that got us!
I was so surprised at the Royal Society’s statement that ‘Improperly handled raw milk is responsible for nearly three times more hospitalisations than any other foodborne disease outbreak’ that I e-mailed them to ask them about the evidence for this comment. After some prodding they had to go to the ?PR company that had arranged the press release.
This was the answer that I finally got “Nonpasteurized, raw milk, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), was responsible for 86 reported food poisoning outbreaks between 1998 and 2008, resulting in 1,676 illnesses, 191 hospitalizations, and two deaths. Improperly handled raw milk is responsible for nearly three times more hospitalizations than any other foodborne disease outbreak.[14] Hannah Gould, CDC, 2011”
It turns out that this is a reported statement from an American source taken from a CNN article! (And as regards the US evidence, where there is a lot of politics behind such statements, these figures are challenged – see here for instance)
I don’t know why The Royal Society did not look at British evidence. According to a Food Standards Agency Report dated 20 March 2012
“With the caveat that there is always the possibility of under reporting of foodborne illness, the available data indicates that there have been no reported outbreaks of illness associated with raw drinking milk or cream in England and Wales since 2002.” (para 4.3) and
“From 1992 to 2002 outbreaks of IID [infectious intestinal disease] linked to consumption of raw drinking milk and raw cream represented a very small proportion of the total number of reported outbreaks of foodborne IID (less than 1%). In the last 9 years there have been no reported outbreaks of IID associated with consumption of raw drinking milk or raw cream, suggesting that the burden of disease from consumption of these products has declined significantly.” (page 11)
I was originally trained as a scientist and had a great respect for The Royal Society. But here I think they have gone badly astray – perhaps in a misguided effort to publicise their catering… (see here). But I think the public has been very badly served by such a misleading statement and no doubt this statement will continue to be repeated in the press with the ‘weight’ of The Royal Society behind it.
I grew up (in England) on a dairy farm on milk straight from the cow. My faimly has always enjoyed robust health. We all have super-straight teeth no one has ever needed braces. No one in my faimly has ever broken a bone even though several of us have been in pretty major accidents over the years. I attribute all this to Raw Milk. Now, living in California, I face a constant struggle to try and find raw milk for my children. The company I purchase raw milk from recently had FDA officials show up at their dairy with guns blazing who shut them down for a couple of months whilst they tested their equipment. Of course their dairy is clinically clean and their cows live in the lap of luxury, unlike most dairy cows in the US that live pretty miserable lives. These sort of bullying tactics happen all to often and it’s economically devastating for these small, faimly owned companies. It’s a testament to their commitment health and sustainability that they continue to struggle on despite the heavy weight of government and big corporations over their heads.
Hi Tania – Great to hear your testimony in favour of raw milk! And it is horrendous what the raw milk farmers in the US are having to put up with. I get regular reports via Natural News. It is hard to get raw milk here (although getting slightly easier) but at least we do not have to put up with that kind of harassment!