Milk: has the time come?

Milk bacterial counts in Chicago in 1904 ranged from 10,000 to 74 million.

Galen C. Bosky, D.H.Sc., R.D., is a science research associate in the Department of Health and Temperance of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

In the spring of 1985 thousands of people in the Chicago area contracted salmonella poisoning by drinking milk. Some elderly people, and others who were already ill when the epidemic occurred died. Then the epidemic subsided, but recurred a few days later. When the ordeal was over more than 16,000 people had been infected in a span of less than a month. 1

The Hillfarm Dairy incident became the nation's worst food poisoning epidemic in history. It originated at a state-of- the-art milk processing plant outside of Chicago that during its 18 years of service had safely processed billions of gallons of milk.

This epidemic led many Seventh-day Adventists to wonder whether now was the time Ellen White had spoken of when the use of milk should be discontinued. The earliest record of such warnings came in 1873: "We have always used a little milk and some sugar. This we have never denounced, either in our writings or in our preaching. We believe cattle will become so much diseased that these things will yet be discarded, but the time has not yet come." 2 Again in 1898 she wrote, "There is no safety in the eating of the flesh of dead animals, and in a short time the milk of the cows will also be excluded from the diet of God's commandment-keeping people.

In a short time it will not be safe to use anything that comes from the animal creation." 3 Her counsel is clear that the time had not yet come. As late as 1909 she still saw the time for discarding milk and cream and eggs as future, and counseled that "it is not necessary to bring upon ourselves perplexity by premature and extreme restrictions. Wait until the circumstances demand it, and the Lord prepares the way for it." 4 To judge the milk situation today, it is helpful to know the state of milk in Ellen White's day.

Milk in Ellen White's day

The better known diseases associated with milk use during Ellen White's life included anthrax, foot-and-mouth disease, cholera, typhoid and paratyphoid fever, scarlet fever, diphtheria, tuberculosis, and brucellosis. At that time the understanding of bacterial organisms was something new, and methods of destroying pathogenic bacterial organisms in milk were still being tested.

In 1894 Melzter demonstrated that violently shaking milk for a prolonged period of time took the vitality out of the bacteria. Some tried filtering milk through sand, but this did not prove successful. Others found that freezing and thawing milk caused bacterial destruction. It wasn't how low the temperature dropped that brought the destruction, but the rapidity of the freezing and thawing process. 5

In 1864 Louis Pasteur discovered that bacteria or microbes in milk could be killed by applying heat. But boiled milk had an obnoxious taste, and butter produced from such milk was tasteless until it was reinfected with bacteria. Refinement of the heating process led to what is now known as pasteurization. It involves applying enough heat to kill pathogenic organisms without bringing the milk to a boil. Not until 1895, the year Pasteur died, was commercial pasteurization equipment for milk introduced into the United States.6 And standardization of the pasteurization process did not come until decades later. Even with pasteurization, "as late as 1938, milk-born out breaks in the U.S. constituted 25 percent of all disease outbreaks due to infected food and contaminated water." 7

In 1896 unpasteurized milk was the main article of diet for infants, children, invalids, and the sick and convalescing. As a result infant mortality was high. Two thirds of infants who died before the age of 1 year were bottle-fed. Milk was in such poor condition that in an attempt to prevent diseases such as cholera, typhoid fever, diphtheria, scarlet fever, and tuberculosis, a group of Philadelphia physicians printed tracts recommending that mothers breast-feed their children until the of age 2. 8

The February 14, 1896, issue of Public Health Reports includes a summary of a 100-page report on the conditions that would make milk "morbific and infectious. " It describes the various colors that milk can have and the organisms associated with these colors. 9

Abnormal odors, tastes, and consistencies resulted from problems ranging from consumption by cattle of onions, skunk cabbage, turnips, and decaying leaves, to bacteria found in dark, damp, and poorly ventilated milk houses. Salty milk was produced when cows grazed on marshy salt grasses.

Stringy and soapy milk was caused by micrococci and was of little danger to the public because few would drink it. But in London it was this stringy or roping milk that was found to be tied to disease outbreaks.

Milk with sediment was common. The sediment was excrementitious matter that had adhered to the cow's udder and fallen into the pail during milking. This situation was vividly demonstrated at a medical convention in Berlin, much to the disgust of American physicians present. The Americans refused to believe there was any sediment in their milk, but upon returning home they discovered that milk samples from Washington, D.C., contained more sediment than what they had seen in Berlin.

Conditions in which cattle were kept caused many of these problems. "Many stables are so small that there is hardly room for the cows to stand," according to one account. "The floors are a mass of filth; drainage and ventilation receives no attention whatever; the atmosphere is so bad as to be almost unbearable; the cows are fed upon slops and allowed to drink water from a pool in the stable yard into which runs the drainage from the stable. The udders of the cows are not clean; the milk is drawn into large buckets, strained into cans, the strainers being almost clogged up with filth and swarms of flies. Milk thus obtained has anything but an inviting odor; it will not remain sweet 12 hours, and is loaded with bacteria." 10

Not all milk in Ellen White's time was this bad. Milk samples received into sterilized bottles from well-cared-for holstein cows were shown to contain an average of only 530 bacteria per cubic centimeter.

By contrast, when little care was taken to prevent stable dust from settling in the container, there were 30,500 bacteria per cubic centimeter. Samples of city milk at this time averaged 235,600 bacteria per cubic centimeter, while samples from grocery stores showed much larger numbers. Milk in New York in 1901 varied from a bacterial count of 300,000 during the winter months to 5 million in the summer. Similarly, milk bacterial counts in Chicago in 1904 ranged from 10,000 to 74 million, 11 and Boston in 1892 averaged 4.5 million. 12 By contrast, U.S. Department of Agriculture standards today state that raw milk for pasteurization cannot exceed a bacterial count of 300,000 and after pasteurization the limit is 20,000.

While care in obtaining the milk was certainly a known problem, tuberculosis in cattle was also serious. Between 1888 and 1891, of 67,077 cattle slaughtered at one location, 20.4 percent were found to be tubercular. Other locations had incidences as high as 54 percent. Forty to 50 percent of milk was infected with tuberculosis bacilli. In the 3 to 4 percent of cattle with lesions of the udder, milk had an infection rate of 60 to 70 percent. 13

Milk quality today

Today tuberculosis in cattle is much reduced. Of the 2,167,018 cattle tested in the U.S. in 1984, only 244 had tuberculosis. While the incidence of brucellosis is higher, still only .3 percent of cattle were infected in 1984.

By 1984 milk-born disease outbreaks in the United States constituted less than 1 percent of food-born outbreaks. 14 This is true in most industrial countries today. There is little resemblance to former conditions with disease in cattle, and as far as disease transmission is concerned milk is safer than it was in Ellen White's day.

The better condition of milk has come about through improvement of the conditions in milking parlors, refrigeration, and preservation. Most if not all milk sold to milk processing plants is obtained by milking machines used after the animals' udders have been washed with warm soapy water. This process greatly decreases bacterial count as does the use of refrigerated holding tanks and refrigerated trucks for transporting the milk to processing plants for pasteurization.

Aflatoxins in milk

Another health hazard present in Ellen White's day as well as ours, though science has become aware of it only in recent decades, is aflatoxin. Aflatoxin is a carcinogen produced by mold that grows on grain, nuts, and cottonseed. Contamination is common in tropic and subtropic areas where temperatures reach 81 degrees Fahrenheit with 85 percent or more relative humidity. Such conditions can lead to contamination in as little as 24 hours. In peanuts and corn, prolonged drought stress appears to be a primary factor in a crop's susceptibility to aflatoxin-producing mold. 15 Because of summer drought followed by heavy rains, aflatoxin levels in the feed of dairy cows is a current concern in the United States. The U.S. government pays fanners for the affected crops so that they will not feed the grain to livestock.

Aflatoxins were identified in 1960 as the source of "turkey X disease," which killed more than 100,000 turkeys and large populations of pheasant, ducks, pigs, and calves in the British Isles. The toxin was found in peanut meal used in feed. Regulatory policy for aflatoxin control has been in existence in the United States since 1965.

When aflatoxin-contaminated feed is consumed by dairy cattle, it shows up in the milk within 24 hours and will continue to be present for 4-5 days. Aflatoxins are toxic, carcinogenic, and mutagenic. Chronic ingestion of aflatoxins has been shown to produce liver cancer in laboratory animals and is associated with primary liver cancer in certain Third World nations, including Kenya, Thailand, Mozambique, and Swaziland.

When aflatoxin levels exceed 20 parts per billion (ppb) in food and 0.5 ppb in milk, the Food and Drug Administration becomes concerned. There is a lower action level for milk because it is considered a major food item for children who are considered most vulnerable to the effects of carcinogens.

With respect to the aflatoxin content in milk, it is doubtful with the various grain-drying methods available today that aflatoxin levels would be greater than in Ellen White's day. Agriculture, the food industry, and governmental monitoring programs have also done much to help reduce aflatoxin levels since 1965.

Ellen White's counsel

Ellen G. White, whose counsel regarding matters of diet and health have been of great value to those who followed them, foresaw a time when milk would no longer be safe to drink. Even in her day she did not consider raw milk safe. She advised boiling milk to avoid contracting disease.16 Even present technology cannot guarantee that raw milk or cheese products are free from human pathogens. 17 Salmonella is found in more than 60 percent of raw milk samples. 18 Microbes such as bovine leukemia virus and bovine papilloma virus are known to be present in raw milk, and they can cause cancer in animals fed raw milk. Proponents of the use of raw milk argue that its flavor and nutritional value are superior to pasteurized milk and milk products, therefore it has greater health-promoting properties. The history of disease transmission from milk in the U.S. is an excellent example of the benefits of pasteurization and the folly of the use of raw or certified raw milk. Significantly, the 1985 Hillfarm incident resulted from a mechanical problem that permitted pasteurized milk to be contaminated by a small amount of raw milk.

In Scotland a 1983 law forbidding unpasteurized milk sales has resulted in reducing milk-born disease outbreaks except in areas around farms where unprocessed milk is used as partial payment for work done. 19 In addition, re ports of milk-born disease outbreaks in England for 1983-1984 show that of the 29 outbreaks, 27 resulted from the consumption of raw milk. 20

Pasteurization has greatly reduced milk-borne disease. But evidence exists that viral pathogens unknown in the days when pasteurization standards were formulated can survive this heat process. Examples of such viral agents include foot-and-mouth disease, Maloney leukemia virus, Rauscher's leukemia virus, Rous sarcoma virus, and bovine papilloma virus. 21 Thus Ellen White's repeated counsel to boil or sterilize milk still has value despite high-quality standards for milk.

Ellen White points out that health reform is progressive. She says we are to learn to cook without the use of milk and eggs. "In all parts of the world provision will be made to supply the place of milk and eggs. ... He [God] desires all to feel that they have a gracious heavenly Father who will instruct them in all things. The Lord will give dietetic art and skill to His people in all parts of the world, teaching them how to use for the sustenance of life the products of the earth." 22

"The time will come when we have to discard some of the articles of diet we now use, such as milk and cream and eggs; but it is not necessary to bring upon ourselves perplexity by premature and extreme restrictions. Wait until the circumstances demand it, and the Lord prepares the way for it."23

"When the time comes that it is no longer safe to use milk, cream, butter, and eggs, God will reveal this. . . . The question of using milk . . . will work out its own problem. 24 Reduction of infectious disease transmission has not eliminated all risks from milk consumption. Liberal use of milk can increase the risk of coronary heart disease.

Research has revealed a connection between dietary consumption of cholesterol and the use of saturated fats in milk. Researchers have also found relationships between the use of high-fat foods (such as milk, cheese, butter/margarine, and cream) and prostate cancer. Also milk in conjunction with the intake of fats has been associated with breast cancer. 25

Does the Hillfarm Dairy epidemic signal the time to discontinue the use of dairy products? Food safety in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and other nations with high standards is better than at any time in history.

The Hillfarm incident does give us a good look at the magnitude of error that can occur when the technology of mass production runs amok. It involved more than 16,000 reported cases, whereas in 62 epidemics reported and discussed in a 1905 issue of Sanitation only 4,565 patients were recorded. 26

It is not advisable to say that the time has come for Seventh-day Adventists to eliminate milk totally from the diet. Evidence indicates that the condition of milk has actually improved with regard to the spread of infectious disease. But we must not forget that this is a progressive message. We should be learning the arts and skills of cooking without milk even though the time when it will be necessary to abstain from its use has apparently not yet arrived.

that was found to be tied to disease out breaks.

 

Milk with sediment was common. The sediment was excrementitious matter that had adhered to the cow's udder and fallen into the pail during milking. This situation was vividly demonstrated at a medical convention in Berlin, much to the disgust of American physicians present. The Americans refused to believe there was any sediment in their milk, but upon returning home they dis covered that milk samples from Washington, D.C., contained more sediment than what they had seen in Berlin.

Conditions in which cattle were kept caused many of these problems. "Many stables are so small that there is hardly room for the cows to stand," according to one account. "The floors are a mass of filth; drainage and ventilation receives no attention whatever; the atmosphere is so bad as to be almost unbearable; the cows are fed upon slops and allowed to drink water from a pool in the stable yard into which runs the drainage from the stable. The udders of the cows are not clean; the milk is drawn into large buckets, strained into cans, the strainers being almost clogged up with filth and swarms of flies. Milk thus obtained has anything but an inviting odor; it will not remain sweet 12 hours, and is loaded with bacteria." 10 Not all milk in Ellen White's time was this bad. Milk samples received into sterilized bottles from well-cared-for holstein cows were shown to contain an average of only 530 bacteria per cubic centimeter.

By contrast, when little care was taken to prevent stable dust from settling in the container, there were 30,500 bacteria per cubic centimeter. Samples of city milk at this time averaged 235,600 bacteria per cubic centimeter, while samples from grocery stores showed much larger numbers. Milk in New York in 1901 varied from a bacterial count of 300,000 during the winter months to 5 million in the summer. Similarly, milk bacterial counts in Chicago in 1904 ranged from 10,000 to 74 million, 11 and Boston in 1892 averaged 4.5 million. 12 By contrast, U.S.

Department of Agriculture standards to day state that raw milk for pasteurization cannot exceed a bacterial count of 300,000 and after pasteurization the limit is 20,000.

While care in obtaining the milk was certainly a known problem, tuberculosis in cattle was also serious. Between 1888 and 1891, of 67,077 cattle slaughtered at one location, 20.4 percent were found to be tubercular. Other locations had incidences as high as 54 percent. Forty to 50 percent of milk was infected with tuberculosis bacilli. In the 3 to 4 percent of cattle with lesions of the udder, milk had an infection rate of 60 to 70 percent. 13 Milk quality today Today tuberculosis in cattle is much reduced. Of the 2,167,018 cattle tested in the U.S. in 1984, only 244 had tuberculosis. While the incidence of brucellosis is higher, still only .3 percent of cattle were infected in 1984.

By 1984 milk-born disease outbreaks in the United States constituted less than 1 percent of food-born outbreaks. 14 This is true in most industrial countries today. There is little resemblance to former conditions with disease in cattle, and as far as disease transmission is concerned milk is safer than it was in Ellen White's day.

The better condition of milk has come about through improvement of the conditions in milking parlors, refrigeration, and preservation. Most if not all milk

1 C. W. Lecos, "A Closer Look at Dairy
Safety," FDA Consumer, April 1986, pp. 14-17.

2 Ellen G. White, Counsels on Diet and Foods,
p. 330.

3 Ibid., p. 411.

4 Ibid., p. 208.

5 F. Corss, "Epidemics Arising From the Use of
Infected Milk," Sanitation 1, No. 7 (1905): 262-
267.

6 D. M. Considine and G. D. Considine, Foods
and Food Production Encyclopedia, pp. 1210-1215.

7 L. Townsend, "Milk Safety. An Historical
Overview," Dairy and Food Sanitation 1, No. 8
(1981): 325-330.

8 T. J. Cooper, "Milk as a Conveyor of
Disease," Journal of Comparative Medicine and
Veterinary Archives 23, No. 12 (1902): 762-764.

9 S. C. Busey and G. M. Kober, "On Morbific
and Infectious Milk," Public Health Reports 11, No.
7 (1896): 117-131.


10 J. J. Berry, "Milk as a Vehicle of Infection,"
Twelfth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of
the State of New Hampshire (1893), pp. 194-200.

11 W. Burrows, Textbook of Microbiology, pp.
194-200.

12 C. A. Bonner, "The Prevention of Milk
Communicable Diseases," The Sanitary Record 22
(1898): 293, 294.

13 Berry, pp. 194-200.

14 Townsend, pp. 325-330.

15 Science News 129, No. 9 (March 1986). See
also Elaine Blume, "Aflatoxin," Nutrition Action
Healthletter 13, No. 8 (September 1986): 1, 4-6.

16 White, p. 203. See also Ellen G. White, The
Ministry of Healing, p. 302.

17 International Dairy Federation Bulletin, 1981,
p. 17.

18 C. McManus and J. M. Lanier, "Salmonella,
Campylobacter jejuni, and Yersina enterocolitica in
Raw Milk," Journal of Food Protection 50, No. 1
(January 1987); 51-55.

19 J.C.M. Sharp, "Infections Associated With
Milk and Dairy Products in Europe and North
America; 1980-1985," Bulletin of the World Health
Organization 65, No. 3 (1987): pp. 397-406.

20 N. J. Barett, "Communicable Diseases
Associated With Milk and Dairy Products in England
and Wales: 1983-1985," Journal of Infection 12,
No. 3 (1986): 265-272.

21 V. M. Hulse, "Raw Milk and Cancer," Health
and Healings, No. 3 (1983): 2-5, 19.


22 White, Counsels on Diet and Foods, p. 359.

23 Ibid., p. 208.

24 Ibid., p. 206.

25 Assembly of Life Sciences, National Research
Council, Diet, Nutrition, and Cancer (Washington,
D.C.: National Academy Press, 1982), pp. 11-17.
26 Corss, pp. 262-267.


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Galen C. Bosky, D.H.Sc., R.D., is a science research associate in the Department of Health and Temperance of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

February 1989

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