MaPo I thing you’re missing the point. The issue of medicating animals is one thing, and in the poultry industry the purpose of antibiotics is to mask bacterialogical infection, a dose of penicillin is not going to make a chicken into Rambo in 40 days.
I am talking specifically about the pasteurisation of milk. In the UK and Ireland it used to be possible to eat rare meat. Now it is not. It is still possible to drink unpasteurised milk. However, the purpose of making pasteruisation compulsory is to allow farmers to spend less money on ensuring milk gets to market quickly and cleanly, as now the heating process kills the bacteria. I save on transport, and on refrigeration. I can also transport it further. I make more money.
Why is beer pasteurised? To protect the consumer or to give it a longer shelf life?
Edit: I’m just looking at a milk industry report here at work… as it happens. You wouldn’t believe the rubbish they put in milk here and in China.
Which ONE of the commercial milks available in Taiwan contains only milk and nothing but the milk? (The rest have all sorts of shite in them)
Why do they last for a fortnight in the fridge - ever wondered about that? Pasteurised milk at home lasts 24 hours in a fridge and 30 minutes on a work top. I am going to ask our milk analyst. (Yes really. We also have a golf club analyst BTW. I am not making this up.)
Bring back real milk, I say. I’m off to buy a cow. Where does one go to buy a cow? Is there a mart in Taipei? Will it fit on my scooter? Do they do mini ones that’ll fit on my balcony?
I am honestly amazed that everyone knows so much about this stuff!
As for the statistics before, I think maybe the French are just more honest about admitting when they are hungover. Most cases of “food poisoning” that I heard of while living in Australia and the US actually involved a case of beer and a half bottle of tequila…
PETA. Hypocritical self-interested pigs. You know these so-called protectors of animals who protest vets and pounds that put down dogs do exactly that themselves frequently?
And as for this:
Maybe in the states, but I can state with 100% certainty that in my experience, that is utter bullshit.
Over-sterilised, over-sanitised, over-regulated food production methods have resulted in pretty much all that we eat being bacteria free. We cannot build up a natural resistance, we become weaker as a species. The modern human is feeble.
I read in the newspaper there are a number of brands of unpasteurized milk sold in Taiwan, (and all free of melamine, yea!), but where do they sell the stuff?
Sorry, I don’t have an answer to the ‘where’ question, but I will point out that as far as I can tell, buying unpasteurized doesn’t decrease the melamine contamination risk, and does increase other pathogen risks, so I doubt you want to be following this path. Why do you want unpasteurized, anyway?
I think health wise unpasteurized milk can not be sold in stores, to buy some you have to go directly to the farms and even than they might not sell it to you … small farms do, I bought some fresh untreated goats milk from a small farmer on regular basis …
All milk for consumption (sold in stores) should be pasteurized (heated to 72 degrees Celsius for at least 15 seconds) don’t confuse with UHT milk which is treated at temperatures of 135 Celsius for a few seconds).
Shelf life for pasteurized milk is short (days), UHT will keep for 9 months unopened …
cheese made from unpasteurized milk can be sold when it’s a cheese that has to ripen for several weeks to months as the process will kill off most pathogens … fresh (cottage, quark) cheese can (should) never be made form unpasteurized milk
Oh, and probably all fresh milks (pasteurized) in Taiwan should not have melamine in it … the milk comes from local farms, not from China … although, if melamine is in the feed (imported from China) than it could have traces …
Raw milk (unpasteurized, unhomogenized) is a lot safer than it is made out to be. Arguably, the real reason for pasteurizing milk (and in some places, banning raw milk) is the product’s shelf-life ($$$), and not the risk of contamination. Raw milk has been sold in California for years without a single incident (despite many instances of contamination from pasteurized milk, some resulting in death). Given its target market (health nerds), raw milk generally comes from grass-fed cows, thus it is higher in Omega-3s and cancer fighting CLA, and it’s higher in vitamins A and D. Most importantly, because raw is unpasteurized, it retains loads of good bacteria (like acidophilus) and wonderful enzymes, so it is more readily digestible than cooked milk. That is the same reason sashimi and raw vegetables are considered healthier than cooked meat and vegetables.
For more info- realmilk.com
I have bought unpasteurized milk before, directly from a farm in Chiayi. There are not too many farms near Taipei but the ones I can think of are Weichuan Ranch in Pusin, Fourways, where we get our organic milk and the Flying Cow
I know this might sound a strange or even dangerous thing to want, but for making some things milk that is pasteurized will not work.
Most of the milk I find here is UHT, TongYi and YiMei have supposedly low temperature pasturization which should in theory be OK for making cheese etc (with the addition of other things) but from my attempts at using it the results seem more like what we would expect from milk that is UHT.
Ideally I would want to get it in the South, but I am pretty much willing to look anywhere in Taiwan.
[quote=“crowsnatcher”]Raw milk (unpasteurized, unhomogenized) is a lot safer than it is made out to be. Arguably, the real reason for pasteurizing milk (and in some places, banning raw milk) is the product’s shelf-life ($$$), and not the risk of contamination. Raw milk has been sold in California for years without a single incident (despite many instances of contamination from pasteurized milk, some resulting in death). Given its target market (health nerds), raw milk generally comes from grass-fed cows, thus it is higher in Omega-3s and cancer fighting CLA, and it’s higher in vitamins A and D. Most importantly, because raw is unpasteurized, it retains loads of good bacteria (like acidophilus) and wonderful enzymes, so it is more readily digestible than cooked milk. That is the same reason sashimi and raw vegetables are considered healthier than cooked meat and vegetables.
For more info- realmilk.com[/quote]
Well said. The hysteria surrounding pasteurization has been whiped up for the benefit of sellers, not buyers. I’m always gobsmacked when people tell me raw eggs and real milk and real mayonnaise etc are dangerous.
Real milk in Taiwan? Doubt it. They’ve got the cattle, but seen any decent grass recently?
PETA. Hypocritical self-interested 
