Science blog posts

No global count exists. National surveys find 4% to 19% of people drink raw milk in high-income countries, and most milk in developing countries is sold raw.

About 4% of US adults, roughly 11 million people, drank raw milk in the past year, and about 1% drink it weekly. Six national surveys compared.

Two federal surveillance studies spanning two decades show raw milk outbreaks get traced to a single farm within days, while most produce outbreaks never are.

US data puts raw milk illness at about 1 in 13,000 to 15,000 consumers a year, below leafy greens, while health agencies recommend against it.

A component-by-component reference for what pasteurization measurably changes in milk, and what it doesn’t, drawing on 14 separately researched findings.

Lactic acid bacteria in soured raw milk measurably inhibit major pathogens in lab testing, but the effect has real, documented limits.

An IgM-lipoprotein complex clusters fat globules together in cold raw milk, accelerating creaming well beyond what density alone would predict.

Refrigerating milk causes one of its four major casein proteins to leave its normal structure entirely, a reversible effect documented since 1977.

In some cows’ milk, simply cooling it after milking is enough to trigger rancidity, no bacteria or physical damage required.

Freezing raw milk causes real structural damage from ice crystals, and how you freeze and thaw it changes how much. Here is what the research documents.

Refrigeration favors a specific category of bacteria whose enzymes often survive pasteurization and even UHT heat completely intact.

Unfortified milk contains too little vitamin D to matter nutritionally, and fortification, not pasteurization, supplies almost all of what is on the label.