The UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) has reiterated its advice concerning the consumption of raw milk. That is, that older people, young children, pregnant women and those with a damaged immune system should not drink it.
The restating of their advice comes after 3 separate incidences of E.coli 0157 poisoning that affected 6 people, 5 of who are children.
Milk is normally heat treated to kill potentially dangerous bacteria that could be present in the milk. This can be achieved by pasteurisation, in which the milk is heated up to 72°C for 15 seconds or by sterilisation/ultra-heat-treatment (UHT) in which the milk is heated to 138°C for a minimum of 2 seconds.
Raw milk is growing increasing popular in England and Wales (it is banned in Scotland). We reported on the subject back in January of this year. It is legal to sell it at Farmer’s markets and direct from the farm but not in other shops.
The farms implicated in the recent poisoning have been banned from selling raw milk until a thorough investigation has been carried out.