Dairy purists trumpet raw milk's health benefits and superior flavor. But aside from being able to occasionally obtain raw milk from a dairy farm, they have to turn to the black market for the white fluid.
Wisconsin state law, echoing the scientific and national dairy establishments' public-health mantra that raw milk is dangerous, prohibits its sale except for occasional on-the-farm sales, without advertising, to visitors.
This dispute stands squarely in a familiar battlefield, pitting industrial agriculture with reams of public-health science behind it against small-scale producers lacking a similar volume of scientific support.
Pasteurizing milk by holding it at a high temperature kills harmful pathogens such as E. coli 157, listeria and salmonella. Milk is pasteurized by piping the raw fluid through lines that hold it at 161 degrees Fahrenheit for up to 20 seconds. An alternative to this high-temperature/short-time method is ultra-high-temperature pasteurization, which holds milk at 275 degrees Fahrenheit for one second. Such pasteurization suits large dairy producers well by eliminating pathogens from a process that, on a large scale, is otherwise difficult to keep sanitary.
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