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.
Show producer Donna Sanders shares her perspective on filming the latest episode of Where the Food Comes From at Splenda Stevia Farms, a company growing a sweet specialty crop here in the U.S. that is typically imported from overseas.
November 01, 2023 09:00 AM
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Splenda’s new stevia farm in Florida is the first of its kind in the United States. Thousands of plants produce millions of leaves that are then turned into plant-based stevia sweetener products. But how do they get the sweet stuff out?
October 31, 2023 09:00 AM
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What does Splenda have to do with farming? Sweeteners like monk fruit and stevia are plant-based — so they are just not sugar, but are comprised of those other plants also grown on farms.
October 30, 2023 09:00 AM
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Where the Food Comes From producer Donna Sanders takes us along on a behind-the-scenes look at filming the show’s newest episode, “Clemson Blue,” where university cheesemakers reveal how they put the “blue” in their award-winning blue cheese.
October 26, 2023 09:00 AM
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It is in there, the mold — those rich blue veins in creamy blue cheese that make you either love it or loathe it — but how does it get there? This bonus scene from “Clemson Dairy,” Season 4, Episode 4 of
Where the Food Comes From, explains how and why that happens.
October 25, 2023 09:00 AM
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No, it is not some new college course — Clemson has been making blue cheese since 1941, and the product has developed a worldwide following and won some pretty big awards. With good reason — it is fantastic stuff. It is also fascinating to see how it is made. Check out this sneak peek look at the latest episode of Where the Food Comes From, “Clemson Blue.”
October 24, 2023 11:32 AM
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