Forever the top choice of children, milk has an unblemished record as the food to have
IN recent years milk has been involved in fewer and fewer outbreaks of illness, to the point that the public and regulatory agencies no longer consider milk as a primary source of foodborn illnesses.
Milk and dairy products can now be considered model foods from the standpoint of regulations and surveillance of production, processing and distribution. Furthermore, there are companion standardized methods for analysis of dairy products.
No other food can claim the degree of standardized surveillance and analysis that is practised for milk and milk products. But that does not mean that milk is hundred per cent free of any disease carrying ability. Milk can also carry certain organizms that can cause severe diseases in humans. One way to prevent this is by pasteurizing the milk.
Pasteurization kills the organisms that cause disease without destroying the milk. It also increases the shelf life of milk by destroying bacteria that causes it to spoil. However, some people do not like the idea of pasteurizing their milk and feel raw milk (un-pasteurized milk) is better than pasteurized milk. Milk is the ideal host for many spoilage organisms, and pasteurization also decreases the bad flavours produce by such organisms.
Pasteurizing milk is very simply, the heating of milk to a specific temperature for a specific time to kill the microorganisms that can transmit diseases to human. The source of these bacteria varies widely. They can be exerted directly into the milk by the animals and they can come from fecal contamination of the milk. They can also come from contamination of the milking and storage equipment or even from the handler of the milk. Proper handling of both raw and processed milk is necessary to keep milk fresh safe and free of flavours and ensure maximum shelf life and purity. There are a few essentials of milk handling that will keep milk healthful and fresh.
ESSENTIALS TO DO: Milk, either raw or processed must be kept cold at all time, once it is removed from the animal.
* Milk should be stored at 45F or 1.2C.
* Milk should be stored in properly sanitized container before and after pasteurization. To this end, a stainless steel container should be used. Some metals such a copper and iron may be absorbed by the milk and cause bad flavours.
* Milk should be kept covered because disease or spoilage bacteria may accidentally contaminate uncovered milk.
* All milk should be pasteurized for home consumption.
Other than these essentials that are necessary for the preservation of milk, there is a list of don’t as well. NOT TO DO: While milk should be kept cold, it should not be frozen. Though it is not harmful but its physical characteristics and flavour are altered.
* Milk should not be exposed to sunlight.
* In sunlight milk develop off flavour and loss of Vitamin.
* The lips of containers should not be touched with hands before or after pouring milk.
* Also do not over-heat the milk
A variety of diseases are transmissible through milk. The source of a pathogenic agent occurring in milk may be either a cow or a human, and it may be transmitted to either. The possibilities are;
* Pathogen from infected cow through milk to human or cow for e.g.. tuberculosis, brucellosis, and mastitis.
* Pathogen from human (infected or carrier) through milk to human. For e.g. typhoid fever, diphtheria, dysentery, scarlet fever.
In the above cases, the causative agent is secreted in the milk directly from the mammary glands.
Fecal contaminants also contaminate the milk, many of these are serious in immune competent healthy peoples, but babies that are chronically ill, older people, pregnant women, people infected with HIV and those receiving cancer therapy are less stable to withstand infection by such organisms and are more susceptible to disease.
When raw milk is used in cheese productions a test is run on the milk to test for actual members of bacteria. This screening detects any lapses in sanitary procedures during milking, which could lead to the increased possibility of the potentially dangerous fecal, contaminants in the milk.
The purpose of this information is not only to describe the numerous potential pathogens that are found in raw milk, but also to educate about the hazards of raw milk and provide wide information to enable the home consumption of safely and accurately pasteurized milk.
Forever the top choice of children, milk has an unblemished record as the food to have 
