‘ Raw’ milk 150 times more likely to cause illness: study

Unpasteurized milk, touted as the ultimate health food by some, is 150 times more likely to cause food- borne illness outbreaks than pasteurized milk, and such outbreaks had a hospitalization rate 13 times higher than those involving pasteurized dairy products, a study from the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds. The survey found 121 outbreaks linked to dairy products in which it was known whether the milk was pasteurized or unpasteurized ( also called “raw”). Of those, 60 per cent were caused by raw milk and 39 per cent by pasteurized milk. That despite unpasteurized milk making up less than one per cent of milk sold in the U. S.