CANADA: Put out to pasteurize

31.mar.08
The Gazette
Mark Cardwell

Carol Vachon, described as Quebec's best-known crusader against the Canada-wide ban on raw milk consumptio, was quoted as telling about 40 students in the food sciences building at Université Laval last week that, "For the past 100 years, the scientific world has been completely closed to raw milk, making research with humans impossible (or) even to compare it with milk sold in stores."
While the manufacture of cheese made from raw milk has been legal in Quebec since 1991 - albeit under such rigid conditions that it remains a niche market - the sale and consumption of unpasteurized or "raw" milk has been banned here since the 1960s.
The story says that 40 years later, there is widespread support among scientists, bureaucrats, the dairy industry and consumer groups in the province for the maintenance of the ban and the rules that control the manufacture and sale of cheese made from raw milk.
All milk sold in Quebec is pasteurized - heated to 73 degrees Celsius for 15 seconds, followed by a rapid cooling to 10 degrees - by industrial dairy companies like Agropur before ending up on store shelves.
Michel Houle, a food inspection councillor for the past 28 years with the Ministère de l'agriculture, des pêcheries et de l'alimentation du Québec the provincial ministry responsible for the enforcement of food laws in the province, was quoted as saying, "There is no debate, no discussion in Quebec or anywhere in Canada that makes me think the laws and status concerning raw milk will change here any time soon. Raw milk is - and will continue to be - seen here as a public health risk."
Microbiologist Jacques Goulet, a professor with the food sciences department at Université Laval since 1974, was cited as saying milk earned its commercial billing as a "nearly perfect food" because it offers a well-balanced combination of chemical substances the human body needs to stay healthy - provided it has been properly pasteurized, adding, "We know that pathogenic bacteria and some viruses, like the polio and encephalitis viruses, can be transmitted by milk. So I'm strongly convinced that raw milk and products made from raw milk are not safe products to consume."
The story notes that in Quebec, there is little enthusiasm among producers, who appear to accept the status quo.
François Dumontier, head of communications for the 14,000 producer-members of the Fédération des producteurs de lait du Québec, who run 7,300 dairy operations that produce 3 billion litres of milk each year, a whopping 40 per cent of the national total, was quoted as saying, "The dangers of consuming raw milk are well documented and established."
Almost one-quarter of Quebec-made milk - 23 per cent - is consumed as pasteurized milk, while the rest is used to make cheese, yogurt, butter, ice cream and other products.
While he acknowledged that most of his group's members probably consume unpasteurized milk from their cows, Dumontier noted they are legally entitled to do so - at their own risk.