American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) announced Monday that pregnant women, infants, and young children are well advised to avoid raw milk and its derivatives on the grounds of its related health risks.
Only pasteurized dairy products is safe, the AAP says in a statement which goes as far as to call a nationwide ban on the sale of raw milk, a call likely to rile many raw milk advocates.
The policy statement, written by Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, a professor of pediatrics at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and published in the journal Pediatrics, says that raw milk products are a continuing source of bacterial infections.
Whether from cows, goats, or sheep, raw milk and products made from it pose health dangers to pregnant women, fetuses, the elderly, young children, and people with compromised immune systems, the statement says.
In 1987, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration outlawed the interstate shipment of raw milk, but since it is a federal agency, it has no jurisdiction over whether or not the milk can be sold within state boundaries.
State laws regarding the shipment of raw milk vary from state to state. Some allow for the sale of raw milk from goats or sheep only, while others are more liberal. A 2011 survey by the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture determined that raw milk and related products were legal to sell in 30 states, though only 11 states allowed retail sales.
Earlier this month, lawmakers in Wisconsin, America's dairy state, approved farm-to-consumer sales of raw milk with certain restrictions, including verifying that the milk is free of pathogens and meets bacterial and somatic cell count standards.
However, raw milk advocates often cite studies that show raw milk is a safe, sustainable source of nutrition and argue that the regulation of farm-to-table milk is an intrusion by the "nanny state."
