No Raw Milk

Raw milk is unpasteurized. Pasteurization is a simple process: heating milk for 20 seconds at just over 160 degrees F does the trick. This is enough to kill potentially deadly bacteria including some you've heard of: Campylobacter, Salmonella, and E coli. The development of pasteurization is one of the big success stories in food safety of the past couple hundred years. Even if the farmer or store selling raw milk assures you that the milk has been tested and is free of bacteria, stay clear. The tests are not reliable, according to the CDC. Click here for access to more sources of information about raw milk. Hear first-hand stories from people who got sick from raw milk here. Listen to an NPR story on this topic by clicking here, and read here why some New Yorkers are unpersuaded by the safety arguments.