A California producer of unpasteurized uncooked milk, the preferred milk of Department of Health and Human Services secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has been pressured by the state to droop operations after officers discovered the chook flu virus in its merchandise.
All operations at Raw Farm ― a Fresno-based producer of uncooked milk, cheeses, pet meals and different dairy merchandise ― are “at present underneath quarantine, from herds to bottled product, which implies that all uncooked milk product distribution is suspended,” Steve Lyle, director of public affairs for the California Department of Food and Agriculture, stated in a press release Monday.
The chook flu virus, or H5N1, was present in samples collected late final month, Lyle stated.
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“CDFA dairy inspectors sampled milk from bottled merchandise and bulk milk storage at Raw Farm’s bottling facility on Wednesday, Nov. 27, and laboratory take a look at outcomes made recognized on November 28 confirmed the presence of the chook flu virus,” he continued. “All milk examined by CDFA remained on the Raw Farm plant and was not launched to customers.”
State, county and federal officers are all persevering with to analyze Raw Farm’s operations, Lyle stated.
The suspension comes not lengthy after Raw Farm voluntarily recalled two of its uncooked milk batches after the Santa Clara County Public Health Department detected chook flu in them.
Despite these ongoing points, Raw Farm told CNN on Monday that Kennedy, President-elect Donald Trump’s choose to steer HHS, has requested the corporate’s CEO, Mark McAfee, to use for the place of “FDA advisor on Raw Milk Policy and Standards Development.”
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Raw milk is milk that hasn’t been by means of the pasteurization course of, which merely entails heating milk to a minimal temperature for a set period of time to be able to kill dangerous micro organism and different pathogens that would sicken customers with chook flu, E. coli, listeria and different severe ailments.
Although human instances of chook flu are unusual, partly because of pasteurization, the viral an infection might be lethal, according to the World Health Organization. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explicitly advises folks not to consume raw milk resulting from its well being dangers.
Kennedy is a uncooked milk advocate who said in October that the Food and Drug Administration’s rules on unpasteurized milk quantity to “aggressive suppression” and a “warfare on public well being.” The solely main uncooked milk regulation from the FDA, which is underneath HHS, is an interstate gross sales ban.
In 2022, Kennedy stated that for the previous yr he’d solely consumed uncooked milk.
The FDA has thrown cold water on claims about the advantages of uncooked milk touted by its advocates, saying there’s no proof that any of the micro organism in uncooked milk is useful for gastrointestinal well being and that there’s no proof it treats bronchial asthma or allergy symptoms, cures lactose intolerance, or works extra successfully than pasteurized milk at keeping off osteoporosis.
The sale of uncooked milk is outlawed in a number of international locations, together with Canada and Australia, and in a number of U.S. states, together with throughout much of the South and several red states.
