Science blog posts

Unlike most dairy pathogens, Listeria monocytogenes thrives in the conditions that define aged cheese production. Cold tolerance, salt resistance, and biofilm formation explain why.

The lactic acid fermentation that eliminates most dairy pathogens triggers an adaptive response in E. coli O157:H7 that allows it to survive past 270 days in aged cheese.

Despite causing 1.5 million U.S. infections per year, Campylobacter rarely survives cheesemaking. Here is why oxygen, salt, and acid eliminate it reliably.

Raw milk cheese sold across state lines in the U.S. must be aged 60 days by federal law. Here is where that requirement came from and what it was designed to prevent.

Cheesemaking eliminates some pathogens reliably and leaves others largely intact. A science-based look at salt, water activity, lactic acid, and the 60-day aging rule.

One confirmed raw milk death in 15 years of federal surveillance. Cattle kill 22 Americans per year. Two numbers that are rarely considered together.

A 1946 map labeled Australia’s outback useless. Today it holds over a million feral camels and a growing camel milk dairy industry.

A UC Davis review of 37 studies found fermented dairy improved gut symptoms and inflammation, with no harmful effects reported.

Humans became lactase persistent through thousands of years of dairy intolerance. Drinking milk through the pain eventually rewrote human genetics.

The Pasteurized Milk Ordinance allows up to 20,000 bacteria per milliliter in finished pasteurized milk. Here’s what the federal standards actually permit, and how licensed raw dairies compare using the same measurements.

Dairy intolerance doesn’t always extend to raw milk. Many report tolerating it without symptoms, yet the mechanisms behind why have yet to be formally studied.

One amino acid separates A1 and A2 β-casein. That difference determines whether digestion produces BCM-7, an opioid peptide linked to gastrointestinal effects. Here is what the research shows.