When is it a good idea to drink raw milk?

There is a lot of talk about raw milk online (1,2). Let’s make sure you remain safe by knowing the facts.

Raw milk is milk that has not been pasteurized (3). Pasteurization consists of heating certain food to high temperature for a short period of time (e.g. 63°C for 30 mins or 72°C for 15 secs) in order to kill and inactivate harmful microorganisms (3,4,5,6,7).

Raw milk is unsafe to drink as it can contain harmful bacteria which are known to lead to very serious diseases (3,6,7). They can cause diarrhea, vomiting, and fever, but also septicemia, meningitis, stroke, kidney failure, miscarriage, Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome, Guillain-Barré syndrome and even death (3,6,5,8). There is also emerging evidence that raw milk could transmit avian influenza H5N1 to mammals (1,9,10,11,12,13). Because of these risks, it is illegal to sell raw milk in Canada (5,6,8).

Some people claim that pasteurized milk is less nutritious than raw milk. While it does slightly reduce its vitamin C content, which milk was never a significant source of anyway, it does not significantly affect its calcium, protein, amino acid, vitamin B6 and vitamin A content (3,6,7,8,14). Plus pasteurized milk is enriched in vitamin D, which is absent in raw milk (15).