Milk on tap directly from the farmyard

Health benefits of unprocessed milk

A lot of consumers indicate that drinking raw milk directly from the cow provides them with health benefits. ‘It appears, among others, from studies around Europe that the risk of allergies and infections in young children decreases after drinking raw milk1,2. It could be that this is because the compounds that are good for the immune system remain intact in unheated milk. These compounds disappear when the milk is heated”, Kasper Hettinga (associate professor dairy science at Wageningen University) explains.

Is it actually safe?

Hettinga: “Before you drink raw milk, it is advisable to first cook the milk. In raw milk there might be pathogens present, such as salmonella and listeria. You cannot taste, smell, or see these pathogens and it is not regularly tested in raw milk sold by farmers.”
Therefore, he suggest not to drink raw milk, despite the potential health benefits. “It really is a too big risk”.

Research

But does that than mean that we have no use of this knowledge about raw milk? Luckily not. At Wageningen University research takes place on making raw milk safe without heating. Different techniques such as high pressure and UV-C treatment can be used to kill pathogens in milk. This research looks into donated human milk as well as cow’s milk. The first results have already been published and show that pathogens can be killed with these new techniques without damaging the healthy compounds in milk3,4. Now that this has been shown in a lab setting, the next step it to test it in humans, which hopefully will be done in the upcoming years.

About Kasper Hettinga

Kasper Hettinga studied Food Technology at Wageningen University and graduated in 2003. He then performed his PhD project on Dairy Science and Technology at Wageningen University, developing a novel method for mastitis detection in milk. Currently, he works as associate professor at the Food Quality and Design group of Wageningen University where his research focuses on product quality parameters that are relevant for infants from a nutritional and immunological point of view.

References

^{1. Loss, G., Bitter, S., Wohlgensinger, J., Frei, R., Roduit, C., Genuneit, J., ... & PASTURE study group. (2012). Prenatal and early-life exposures alter expression of innate immunity genes: the PASTURE cohort study. Journal of allergy and clinical immunology, 130(2), 523-530.}

^{2. Waser, M., Michels, K. B., Bieli, C., Flöistrup, H., Pershagen, G., Von Mutius, E., ... & PARSIFAL Study Team. (2007). Inverse association of farm milk consumption with asthma and allergy in rural and suburban populations across Europe. Clinical & Experimental Allergy, 37(5), 661-670.}

^{3. Kontopodi, E., Stahl, B., van Goudoever, J. B., Boeren, S., Timmermans, R. A., den Besten, H. M., ... & Hettinga, K. (2022). Effects of High-Pressure Processing, UV-C Irradiation and Thermoultrasonication on Donor Human Milk Safety and Quality. Frontiers in Pediatrics, 10.}

^{4. Liu, Y., Xiong, L., Kontopodi, E., Boeren, S., Zhang, L., Zhou, P., & Hettinga, K. (2020). Changes in the milk serum proteome after thermal and non-thermal treatment. Innovative Food Science & Emerging Technologies, 66, 102544.}