The Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin is researching the spread of High-Path Avian Flu (HPAI) in dairy cattle. Researchers confirmed that the virus infected mice that consumed raw dairy products, but that pasteurization inactivates 99.9% of HPAI virus in milk and cheese.
“It seems like this virus, this bird flu virus, this influenza virus, is pretty easy to inactivate by heat treatment,” said researcher John Lucey. “So, I’m pretty hopeful that all of these raw or heat-treated cheeses, milk used for cheeses, would be inactivated by the treatment when we’re using it.”
While experts have warned about the dangers of consuming raw or unpasteurized milk, Lucey says that many packaged cheeses are sold with “raw” on the label without being 100 percent raw.
“There are a couple of important details for the public to understand,” he explains. “Something will be labeled or considered raw by the FDA for cheese purposes, even though it might have a heat treatment that’s pretty significant. But if it doesn’t reach the number or level the FDA considers pasteurization, everything below that number is completely raw from their perspective. For example, something could be 5º Fahrenheit, less than the critical temperatures, and the FDA would still consider that raw. It’s either pasteurized or raw. There are only two definitions for them.”
The research included the same FDA industry standards for pasteurization that also inactivate pathogens like Salmonella and Listeria.
