Milk law ages like wine

Mar 9

One hundred years ago, safe dairy was hard to come by

By Forrest J.H.

Hundreds of milk-born disease outbreaks, no standard for safe handling and toothless legislation created a public health disaster that demanded action on a national level.

A century ago, the milk industry was deadlier than the wild, wild west. Many did not know or were misinformed about milk safety, monopolistic dairy businesses supplying big cities held all the power over consumers and the government stood on flat feet.

As a result, the public faced a barrage of outbreaks of typhoid, scarlet fever, tuberculosis and diphtheria around the turn of the century. According to a 1924 Public Health Service report, milk was only second to water as a disease transmitter.

Today, it is one of the safest food products available. According to a study in the Journal of Food Protection, Grade A milk was responsible for only one reported illness per two billion pounds consumed from 1999 to 2013.

That 1924 report was part of developing the Standard Milk Ordinance that outlined today’s quality and safety standards the nation so sorely lacked back then.

The milk safety disaster was spinning out of control, so federal officials teamed up with the Alabama State Board of Health to take a closer look and figure out what to do.

They found cities were growing larger and milk companies were consolidating their production until huge populations were all drinking from the same source. If that source was not handling the milk safely, the public was bound to get sick.

Government officials reported staggering negligence at facilities, where milk was stored in unsanitary containers at unsafe temperatures. On top of that, workers appeared not to know how to handle milk safely or did not have the agency to advocate for a safer product. They often came to work sick, sometimes because of the very milk they were handling. Their bosses did not seem to care much either.

“Employees will frequently have intestinal disturbances and engage in milking or bottling operation before disclosing their condition,” according to the 1924 report. “They will sneeze into their hands and even under the most rigid supervision continue milking without precautions.”

Making matters more challenging, there was no unity when it came to keeping milk safe. Different jurisdictions were proud to write their own laws to regulate milk safety, but the mismatching patchwork of codes created, “an almost inconceivable confusion of both legislation and control.”

To be fair, some larger cities had made progress slowing the spread of milk-born illness in the years leading up to 1924. However, there were still several outbreaks each year even in good areas, and the data indicated smaller cities, or groups researchers missed, were not making progress. The report also made a point to note there were certainly more affected by bad milk than could be recorded.

Over time, government officials succeeded in establishing a unified code for safe handling, appealing to business interests for safer milk and carefully lobbying local governments to follow Alabama’s example.

A lot has changed since then, thanks to the milk ordinance, but attitudes are changing again in a peculiar way. While milk that meets the Grade A standard is extremely safe, the growing prevalence of raw, unpasteurized milk is like a look into the past.

Over the past 10 years, several states have legalized selling raw milk. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention blamed raw milk for over 2,600 illnesses and 228 hospitalizations between 1999 and 2018. Children, the elderly and people with compromised immune systems are particularly vulnerable.

In a New York Times article from last July, several public health experts lament the trend and hope to stop the spread of false information claiming raw milk’s safety.

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This article’s ingredients

Keeping Your Milk Safe From the Grass to the Glass

U.S. Food and Drug Administration consumer updates

February 16, 2024

https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/keeping-your-milk-safe-grass-glass

A state-wide milk sanitation program

United States Public Health Service, public health reports

November 7, 1924

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1975986/pdf/pubhealthreporig02537-0001.pdf

Evaluation of the Level of Food Safety Protection Provided by the U.S. Grade “A” Pasteurized Milk Ordinance and Its Associated Cooperative Grade “A” Milk Safety Program

Journal of Food Protection

Yinqing Ma, Karl C. Clontz, Michael J. Dinovi, et al

August 1, 2015

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0362028X23056946?via%3Dihub

Raw Milk Is Being Legalized in More States. Is It Safe?

The New York Times

Dani Blum

July 11, 2023

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/11/well/eat/raw-milk-risks.html?searchResultPosition=1

Foodborne Illness Outbreaks Linked to Unpasteurized Milk and Relationship to Changes in State Laws – United States, 1998–2018

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: foods that can cause food poisoning

April 17, 2023