Raw milk fad on social media worries CDC, health experts

The trend of drinking raw milk is gaining popularity on social media, with users claiming it has health benefits that get lost during the pasteurization process. 

Unlike milk bought from a supermarket, which is heated up to a certain temperature to kill harmful bacteria, raw milk is untreated.

And that has food safety experts worried
US public health officials warn against the consumption of raw milk as the chances of you ingesting pathogens like salmonella, E. Coli and even bird flu that has infected dairy cows nationwide are high.

Some videos featuring influencers drinking and feeding their children unpasteurized milk have crossed 8 million views on TikTok.

Even dairy farmers have observed a rise in demand for raw milk. Over a comparable period last year, its sales jumped 65%, per NielsenIQ.

However, the recent interest in raw milk increased since bird flu was first reported in cattle in the US. Some even say that there is not enough evidence that humans can contract the virus from consuming cow milk.

What are experts saying?
The FDA cautions that unpasteurized milk poses significant health risks, including diarrhea, and in some cases, strokes.

Bird flu has only been reported in 49 cow herds across nine states. And there is no information yet if ingesting raw milk with live virus could cause bird flu in people (which is highly dangerous for humans), ingesting it could lead to other problems; the virus could evolve.

Infected cows can have high amounts of the virus in their milk, but pasteurization kills it.

The CDC recently reported a Michigan dairy worker contracting avian flu, the second such case linked to the H5N1 outbreak in America, though it wasn’t due to raw milk consumption.

Food scientists also argue there is no significant nutritional difference between raw and pasteurized milk.