Serious Cheese: On Raw-Milk Cheese
Photograph from Wikimedia Commons
A few weeks back, JGordon left a comment on my post regarding France's raw-milk cheese war: "Could someone explain the difference between pasteurized cheeses and raw milk cheeses? Does pasteurization just destroy the flavor of cheese?... Despite the near-illegality of raw milk and its rare consumption, several hundred people a year become ill from drinking raw milk, with the occasional death. Is cheese safer, or is the taste difference very significant?"
The raw-milk debate isn't going away anytime soon, so I thought it would be a good time to answer questions like those above and lay down my take on the matter.
Raw Milk vs. Raw-milk Cheese
Drinking raw milk is a public health issue. Milk can contain some seriously dangerous bacteria, including Listeria, E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella. Before pasteurization became the norm, raw milk consumption was linked with even more serious diseases like typhoid, scarlet fever, and tuberculosis. But making cheese out of raw milk is really a separate issue. For various reasons, raw-milk cheese produced under strict standards of cleanliness is far safer than raw fluid milk.
And yes, raw-milk cheese does taste better--dramatically so. The complex mix of organisms naturally occurring in raw milk leads to a depth of flavor that pasteurized cheeses can't really approach. That's not to say that there aren't any pasteurized cheeses that are excellent, nor are all raw-milk cheeses revelations, but the trend is undeniable.
Factors that Influence Bacterial Growth
As explained by UVM Professor Catherine W. Donnelly in Chapter 9 of the book American Farmstead Cheese, there are a number of intrinsic and extrinsic factors that influence how hospitable a given cheese is to bacterial growth. High salt content, high acidity, and the presence of antimicrobial substances in the cheese are all factors that can influence the number of bacterial pathogens. How the milk and cheese are handled both on the farm and in the processing plant also affects bacterial growth.
It's all Relative
Given that, certain cheeses are less risky than others: semi-firm and firm, aged cheeses like the blues, Swiss, cheddars, and most Italian cheeses are considered safer than soft cheeses like ricotta, Brie, Camembert, etc. Moreover, cheeses made at small operations are less risky than those from bigger plants. (Incidence of Salmonella is much lower among farms with fewer than 100 animals than those with more than 100.)
Pasteurization Not a Magic Bullet
There is a theory that pasteurization can in some ways actually be more problematic than using raw milk. Pasteurization kills off any beneficial bacteria that are naturally present in raw milk. These beneficial bacteria could be an important defense against pathogenic growth, especially in a medium such as milk whose high water-content, relatively low acidity and high sugar levels make for a bacteria-friendly environment. Pasteurization also has the appearance of a magic bullet technique, which could lead producers to cut corners by using inferior milk or accepting shoddy procedures with regard to cleanliness. The science hasn't been done yet to bear all this out, but the theory is compelling.
Cleanliness is Next To Godliness
So ultimately Dr. Connelly recommends an approach to raw-milk cheese that involves stricter manufacture along with better bacterial testing throughout. I tend to agree because it would be a shame if the FDA decided to shut down raw-milk cheeses altogether. What about you? Where do you stand in this debate? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment below.
About the author: Jamie Forrest publishes Curdnerds.com from his apartment in Brooklyn, New York, where he lives with his wife, his daughter, and his cheese.
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8 Comments:
Thanks, I've been wondering about raw vs. pasteurized cheeses. You've put me squarely in the camp of raw milk cheese (as long as I know the cheese maker uses the right milk and procedures)
jackiecat at 5:57PM on 03/18/09
I agree with you, I think that raw milk cheese is safe. What seems to be important is the cleanliness of the cheese making facility as well as the way the milk is handled from the fields to the caves. Since cheese has to be fermented and usually the cultures are added to the milk, in most cases these added cultures will come to dominate the cheese and suppress the growth of the bad bacteria. This should also be true for pasteurized milk, so pasteurized milk should be any more problematic in this regard. But I do agree with you that pasteurization may in some instances be used as a way to cover up less than perfect practices.
thedairyshow at 6:08PM on 03/18/09
Just wanted to add some more info to the raw cheese vs pastuerized cheese topic. Although you seem to be in favor of most raw cheeses, I think you downplay just how much better raw dairy is for humans! Pasteurized dairy is one of the leading causes of health problems in Americans today and is considered to be a major link to the growing number of food allergies in people. The risk of salmonella in raw cheese is so small; most of the time, humans consume tiny quantities of salmonella from cooked eggs, chicken, etc but dont notice it anyway. In small amounts, it will show up as just a stomach ache or a case of diarhea. Think about it. How often does your stomach hurt after you eat out at a restaurant? Yes, thats salmonella (or a number of other food infections that occur after eating at restaurants).
The only real risk I see with eating raw dairy is the risk of consuming a type of natural bacteria that our bodies are not used to; if you eat modern dairy products, you are consuming synthetically made/grown chemicals. So when eating any type of raw dairy, just be sure to start out with very small amounts, so you can slowly adjust to the beneficial bacterias in it.
Overall, raw dairy is much more superior to pasteurized dairy in both flavor and nutrition. I stand by this statement as a Natural Foods Chef and lover of cheese. Also, check up on your facts about how raw dairy used to effect people from past generations (i.e. tuberculosis, thyphoid, etc). There have been debates and documents that rule this myth out. Weston Price is a great resource for learning more about the facts of raw milk. Visit the weston price website :)
danirose87 at 12:03AM on 03/19/09
@danirose87, Can you point to some sources for your claims? In particular I'd be interested in seeing scientific studies of links between consuming pasteurized milk and increased food allergies. There's a lot of pseudoscience going on in the food world, so I think it's important to be rigorous about such claims.
jamieforrest at 8:19AM on 03/19/09
Jamie, thanks for the info. I just saw this today, and it's nice to hear some more background. It makes sense that the "good bacteria" and high salt content would limit the growth of bad bacteria. Maybe I'll have to hunt down some raw milk cheeses at my local grocer and see what I've been missing.
@danirose87, I'm going to have to call BS on a significant portion of your post. The pasteurization of milk has long been (and still is) considered a major triumph of public health policy, and is responsible for one of the largest reductions in infectious disease transmission in history.
Your comparison to eggs and chicken is totally invalid and illogical -- eggs and chicken are cooked before eating, which kills off salmonella. Raw milk is obviously not cooked. There is essentially no comparison possible between cooked products and raw milk -- the vast majority of salmonella poisoning cases stem from undercooked chicken or raw egg consumption. The effective comparison would be to "cooked milk" -- aka pasteurized milk -- where salmonella poisoning is equally rare.
I also have not seen any data to indicate that pasteurized milk consumption is "one of the leading causes of health problems." Overeating, the vast abundance of cheap food, and a lack of exercise are the leading causes behind obesity. I'm about three-quarters of the way towards receiving my Master's in Public Health -- which is a significant part of the reason I'm interested in this topic -- and I've never heard a professor, seen a text, or read an article that referred to pasteurization of milk as anything but a resounding success.
I'd like to see some legitimate peer-reviewed articles backing up your points. A quick search of PubMed did not lead me to any articles with a positive view of raw milk, yet I found many, many articles detailing the pathogen-transmission capabilities of raw milk. In fact, here is a couple of direct quotes from the first relevant article in my search for "unpasteurized milk:"
"Despite concerns to the contrary, pasteurization does not change the nutritional value of milk."
"The consumption of milk that is not pasteurized increases the risk of contracting disease from a foodstuff that is otherwise very nutritious and healthy."
(Food safety: unpasteurized milk: a continued public health threat. Lejeune JT, Rajala-Schultz PJ. Clin Infect Dis. 2009 Jan 1;48(1):93-100. Review.)
There were very few papers available addressing raw-milk cheeses, either positively or negatively.
JGordon at 6:45PM on 03/24/09
While a admit that pasteurization is necessary in the modern age of large scale "factory" dairy farms, it should still be legal to sell raw milk. Studies have shown the bio-availability of calcium is greatly reduced by the the pasteurization process. The enzyme, lipase is also completely destroyed. Lipase is an enzyme that breaks down the milk fats from triglycerides into monoglycerides and free fatty acids which are much easier to digest. Not to mention the benefit of the live microflora to the human digestive track. The digestive track should be full of living bacteria to help breakdown food, but due to the overuse of pasteurization, irradiation, preservatives and antibiotics most Americans are lacking these bacteria. Nearly all other countries allow for the sale of raw milk and young raw milk products and if done correctly they are very safe.
Brandon Schilling
bnl552 at 8:27PM on 07/23/09
That's a good post. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Find some ">http://www.saycheesewithbritannia.com/recipes.asp"> Cheese Recipes here.
Cheese Products at 7:25AM on 08/11/09
Jamie,
Love your stuff. I'm a fellows Brooklyn Cheesemaker.
Have a look at my blog at: http://cheesenbread.wordpress.com/
brooklynculture at 4:09PM on 09/12/09