Is milk as we knew it safe in today's market?

[Guest guest]

Thought you might be interested in this article about contaminated milk.

Meningitis in Milk Powder & Baby Formula

China announced this week (February 2, 2009) that

nearly 20,000 pounds of milk formula imported from

Taiwan and Australia had been found to contain

bacteria which can cause meningitis. During the

past year, China has banned 852 batches of food

including milk, dairy and meat products from the

United States, Japan, and Spain.

Four years ago, the Notmilk letter reported:

" The British journal Lancet (2004; 363:5-6,39-40)

points a finger of blame at a bacterium called E.

sakazakii. According to researchers, cases of severe

meningitis have been associated with powdered

milk-based infant formulas and powdered milk. What

product is used to make milk-based powdered formula

and dried milk? Uh, huh. Fluids from diseased

dairy cows. "

This is not China's first experience with tainted

milk powder. In May of 2005, the Notmilk letter

reported:

" ...the Chinese government discovered that Nestles

brand milk powder contains unsafe levels of iodine,

and immediately that the dangerous product be removed

from market shelves...American health officials are

faced with the same challenge, but refuse to take

action. "

Bacteria in non fat dry milk are not always killed by

heat treatment. Dry milk infected with staphylococcus

toxins have infected thousands of people with

gastroenteritis. The Centers for Disease Control

have blamed increases of outbreaks on non-fat dried

milk.

As a result of that column, many readers wrote to me,

wanting to know how many live bacterial cells are

permitted in non-fat dried milk by the United States

Department of Agriculture.

The U.S. Standards for Grades of Nonfat Dry Milk

allow 10,000 bacterial cells per gram. Since there

are 454 grams in a pound of dry milk powder, expect

to find no more than 4,540,000 live bacterial cells

in each pound of product.

The Chinese people recently celebrated their new

year, the year of the Ox (and cow). With recent

melamine milk scandals and the current meningitis

milk powder story, the year of the bovine should

be one of caution.

Cohen

http://www.notmilk. com