Raw milk vendors at farmers markets in Portland, Maine will not be required to post warnings about the dangers of raw milk, the city council decided last night.
Portland’s health department had recommended that warnings alerting potential buyers to the health risks of raw milk be posted on placards or handouts where raw milk was sold, but the council voted against the proposed measure calling it “unfair and arbitrary.”
Raw milk is unpasteurized and can carry dangerous pathogens such as Salmonella, E.coli, Campylobacter and Listeria. Many medical and scientific organizations recommend that milk intended for human consumption be pasteurized, they include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Veterinary Medical Association and the National Association of State Public Health Veterinarians.
Raw milk accounts for the bulk of dairy-associated foodborne illness outbreaks, according to the CDC. The agency estimates that raw milk causes an average of eight foodborne illness outbreaks every year.
Currently, a multistate outbreak linked to raw milk produced on a Pennsylvania farm has sickened at least 43 people with Campylobacter infections, according to state health officials. Over the last three years, there were 29 foodborne illness outbreaks linked to raw milk or raw cheese. And, in the decade prior to that, from 1998 to 2009, there were 93 reported outbreaks of foodborne illness linked to raw milk and raw milk products, according to the CDC. Those outbreaks sickened a total of 1,837 people, 195 people required hospitalization and two were killed.
