Raw Milk Literature Review

Milk is considered to be the most important part of our diet and is known to provide nutrition and vitamins to the body. There are several extensive studies regarding the quality and safety of milk, however it still continues to be an issue for debate in Canada. Some of the raw milk advocates claim that raw milk should be preferred instead of pasteurized milk while some microbiologists suggests that there are certain harmful bacteria present in the raw milk which needs to be killed with pasteurization.

Although milk is an important source of nutrition for all ages but it is offers an environment for the multiplication of some types of bacteria. Oliver et al. (2009) has reviewed several studies and found various foodborne pathogens in raw milk

However, there is no proven evidence which shows that raw milk is more superior and nutritious than pasteurized milk. Pasteurisation may results in changes in the nutritional value of raw milk such as loss of vitamin C and vitamin B12 but it does contains vitamin D which is a federally regulated addition (Franklin M.M. White, et al., 1982). The process of pasteurisation of milk may also increase the concentration of vitamin A in milk (MacDonald, L.E. et al.,

However the biological value of the proteins in raw milk is only reduced by 1% during pasteurized (Franklin M.M. White, et al., 1982). Furthermore, other nutrients present in the milk remains the same even after pasteurization. When heating milk at 72°C, can damage some nutrients in raw milk yet, the overall effect is very less. Moreover, the level of fat, carbohydrate, vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin B6, vitamin E, vitamin K, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, calcium in milk remains unaltered after its pasteurization (Franklin M.M. White, et al., 1982). Therefore, pasteurized milk still contains the high amount of valuable