Raw Milk Near Costa Mesa, California

Bavarian-born merchant and Macy’s co-owner Nathan Straus built a privately funded network of 297 pasteurized milk depots across 36 American cities between 1893 and 1920, accumulating the mortality data that drove mandatory pasteurization legislation across the United States.

Fairfield Dairy produced the world’s first certified milk in 1894, became the movement’s showcase, then its most public failure.

How a Newark doctor’s 1889 search for clean milk led to America’s first certified milk standard, a children’s hospital, and a 1916 polio relief model.

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

How a physician-led commission built America’s first raw milk quality standard, with bacterial limits and inspection contracts that scaled across 58 cities, and what it shares with raw milk standards today.

A 2026 Colorado legislative memo claims Pasteur invented pasteurization for milk in 1863. The real history: Pasteur targeted wine and beer, and milk pasteurization came from Franz von Soxhlet in 1886.