Raw Milk Benefits vs Pasteurized Milk: Nutrition Facts, Risks, and What the Numbers Show

Food Industry
Written By Ivy Ham

Raw milk is milk from the cow, chilled but never heated. Pasteurized milk has been held at 161°F (72°C) for 15 seconds, and ultra-pasteurized (UHT) milk at 275°F (135°C) or higher, to kill bacteria. Is raw milk good for you? The studies below link it to lower rates of asthma and allergy in children who drank it early in life, and outbreak records link it to a higher illness rate per serving than pasteurized milk. Both findings come from the same body of research, and the case for raw milk is more mixed than either side of the debate tends to admit. This article covers raw milk nutrition facts, what heat changes in milk, what the studies show on allergy, immunity, gut and bone health, the illness and death counts on record, who the people behind those death counts were, and why raw milk draws more alarm than foods that sicken far more people. I drink raw milk myself. The numbers are laid out so you can weigh them for your own household.

Key takeaways

  • A cup of whole milk supplies about 8 grams of protein, 8 grams of fat, and 276 mg of calcium. Raw and pasteurized milk match on these numbers; the differences are in heat-sensitive proteins, enzymes, and live bacteria.[35]
  • In a meta-analysis of eight European studies, children who drank raw farm milk early in life had 42% lower odds of asthma and 32% lower odds of hay fever than children who drank heated milk.[6]
  • Standard pasteurization leaves most heat-sensitive whey proteins in place. UHT, boiling, and extended-shelf-life treatment reduce lactoferrin, lactoperoxidase, and 21 other immune-active proteins.[1]
  • US outbreak records for 1998 through 2018 link raw milk to 202 outbreaks, 2,645 illnesses, 228 hospitalizations, and 3 deaths. Pasteurized milk over the same 21 years: 9 outbreaks, 2,133 illnesses, 33 hospitalizations, and 3 deaths.[11]
  • Nearly every documented dairy death on either side was Listeria in a person over 65, already hospitalized, on chemotherapy, pregnant, or newborn. No healthy adult or older child appears among the dead on either list.
  • Leafy vegetables cause more foodborne illnesses than any other food category in the US and an estimated 87 deaths a year.[17]
  • Per glass, raw milk is more likely than pasteurized milk to carry a pathogen. Per year, it is linked to far fewer deaths than salad greens. Both statements come from the same surveillance data.
  • A small randomized trial found raw milk did not ease lactose intolerance symptoms compared with pasteurized milk.[3]

This article is educational and is not medical advice. Ivy Ham is a certified clinical herbalist, not a physician. Whether raw milk belongs in your kitchen depends on your health, your source, and your state's laws. Talk with a qualified healthcare provider before changing your diet.

Raw milk nutrition facts

Evidence: strong for the composition figures, which come from the USDA nutrient database. Farm milk is not standardized for fat, so the fat and calorie lines below are a floor, not a fixed value.

How much protein is in raw milk? About 8 grams per cup, the same as pasteurized whole milk, because heating does not remove protein, fat, lactose, or minerals. The table uses the USDA entry for unfortified whole milk at 3.25% fat, the closest published match for milk that has not been fortified or skimmed.[35] Raw milk from the farm often runs higher in fat, since it is not standardized, and the exact figure shifts with breed, season, and pasture. Jersey and Guernsey milk in particular carry more cream than the Holstein milk most stores sell.

Per 1 cup (244 g) whole milkAmount
Calories149
Protein7.7 g
Fat7.9 g
Carbohydrate (as lactose)11.7 g
Calcium276 mg
Phosphorus205 mg
Potassium322 mg
Riboflavin (B2)0.41 mg
Vitamin B121.1 mcg

What the table cannot show is the part that changes with heat: lactoferrin and other immune-active whey proteins, the enzyme alkaline phosphatase, live lactic acid bacteria, and the original fat globule membrane. Those are the raw milk advantages that advocates point to, and the next section covers what the lab measurements say about each one.

Raw vs pasteurized milk: what heating changes

Evidence: moderate. Lab measurements of milk composition are consistent across studies. Human outcome data tied to those changes is thinner.

Immune proteins

A 2017 proteomics study applied every common processing method to the same three pools of raw milk and measured 364 whey proteins. Samples sorted into two groups: high heat (boiling, UHT, extended shelf life) and low or no heat (raw, skimmed, standard pasteurized). Twenty-three proteins were significantly reduced in the high-heat group, including lactoferrin, lactoperoxidase, and lactadherin. Standard 161°F (72°C) pasteurization clustered with raw milk, not with UHT.[1] The practical reading is that the big losses come from ultra-pasteurization, which is now the default for most organic and extended-shelf-life milk in US stores.

Enzymes

Alkaline phosphatase is destroyed at pasteurization temperature, which is why its absence is the standard test for complete pasteurization. Raw milk advocates often say this enzyme is needed to absorb calcium. The one controlled comparison, a rat study using radioactive calcium tracing, found no difference in calcium absorption or femur deposition between raw, pasteurized, and UHT milk.[4]

Vitamins

A systematic review of 40 studies found pasteurization lowers vitamins B1, B2, C, and folate, and by qualitative review B12 and E, with no effect on B6. The authors judged the nutritional impact minimal because milk is a poor source of most of these to begin with, with riboflavin (B2) the exception worth watching.[2]

Live bacteria and lactose

Raw milk carries live lactic acid bacteria. Pasteurized milk does not. Many people report they tolerate raw milk despite lactose intolerance, and the explanation offered is that those bacteria digest lactose for you. A Stanford crossover trial tested this in 16 adults with confirmed lactose malabsorption. Raw milk did not lower breath hydrogen or symptom scores compared with pasteurized milk.[3] The trial was small and its authors called it a pilot, but it is the only randomized test of the claim so far.

Fat structure

Most store milk is homogenized, which forces fat through fine nozzles under pressure and breaks the fat globules to a fraction of their natural size. Raw milk keeps its cream line and the original fat globule membrane. Whether that structural difference changes human health outcomes has not been tested in a controlled trial.

Raw milk benefits: what the studies show

Evidence: moderate for asthma and allergy (large cohorts and one meta-analysis, no completed randomized trial). Limited for gut health. Weak for bone and teeth as a raw-versus-pasteurized question.

The health benefits of raw milk that hold up best in the literature are about the immune system in early childhood. The studies below are cohorts and one meta-analysis, which can show association but not cause, and the funding and affiliations of each are noted.

Asthma, hay fever, and allergy

The GABRIELA study measured milk samples from farm and non-farm households across five European countries and surveyed the families of more than 8,000 children. Children who drank raw farm milk had 41% lower odds of asthma than children who drank only shop milk, after adjusting for other farm exposures. Boiled farm milk did not carry the same protection, which pointed the researchers to heat-sensitive whey proteins.[5] The study was funded by the European Union; its senior author reports consulting fees from Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, and ALK-Abelló.

A 2020 meta-analysis pooled eight studies and found raw milk consumption in early childhood associated with lower odds of asthma (OR 0.58), wheeze (0.66), hay fever (0.68), and allergic sensitization (0.76). The asthma effect held in rural children who did not live on a farm, which argues the milk itself matters and not just farm life.[6] The same group has since launched a randomized trial in Bavaria that feeds infants minimally processed milk instead of raw, because raw milk cannot be used in a trial. The 2024 feasibility report enrolled 260 infants, 72% with a family history of allergy, and recorded no cases of milk allergy in either arm. Efficacy results are pending.[9]

Infections in the first year of life

The PASTURE birth cohort tracked 983 rural infants with weekly health diaries. Compared with UHT milk, raw milk in the first year was associated with 29% lower odds of runny nose, 23% lower odds of respiratory infection, and 86% lower odds of ear infection. C-reactive protein, a blood marker of inflammation, was lower at 12 months in raw milk drinkers.[7] Funding included European Commission grants and an unrestricted grant from FrieslandCampina, a dairy cooperative.

Lung function decades later

The Agricultural Lung Health Study, run by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, measured breathing tests in 3,061 US adults with a mean age of 63. Those who drank raw milk as children had higher FEV1 and FVC, the two main measures of lung capacity, than those who did not. No other early-life farm exposure showed the same link.[8]

Gut microbiome

Twenty-four adults spent 12 weeks living and eating at an Irish organic farm where the dairy was unpasteurized. Stool samples showed a significant rise in the genus Lactobacillus, an increase in the short-chain fatty acid valerate, and a wider range of predicted neuroactive pathways.[10] This was observational, the whole diet changed at once, and two co-authors run the cookery school that hosted it. Read it as a promising signal that still needs a controlled trial. If gut health is your reason for looking at raw milk, the gut health hub and the intestinal permeability article cover the broader picture.

Bones and teeth

Milk supplies calcium and phosphorus in a form the body absorbs well, and that is true of raw and pasteurized milk alike. No human study has shown raw milk builds denser bone or stronger teeth than pasteurized milk. The controlled animal comparison found no difference in calcium uptake,[4] and a 1966 enamel study found raw, pasteurized whole, and skim milk all reduced enamel acid solubility by at least 20%.[23] Raw milk shares the bone and tooth benefits of milk in general, and no study has shown it exceeds them.

Raw milk risks: illness and deaths on record

Evidence: strong for the counts themselves, which come from national outbreak surveillance published in peer-reviewed journals. Every food category is undercounted by the same system, since most foodborne illness is never traced to an outbreak.

The health risks of consuming raw milk are measured in outbreak records. From 1998 through 2018, US health departments reported 21,919 foodborne outbreaks. Raw milk accounted for 202 of them (0.9%), with 2,645 illnesses, 228 hospitalizations, and 3 deaths. Pasteurized milk accounted for 9 outbreaks, 2,133 illnesses, 33 hospitalizations, and 3 deaths. Of the raw milk illnesses reported between 2013 and 2018, 48% were in people under 20.[11] The authors are staff of the CDC and FDA, whose position on raw milk is settled; the figures themselves are counts, not opinions.

A separate systematic review restricted to lab-confirmed outbreaks in the US and Canada from 2007 to 2020 found 20 outbreaks from unpasteurized dairy (449 illnesses, 124 hospitalizations, 5 deaths) and 12 from pasteurized dairy (174 illnesses, 134 hospitalizations, 17 deaths, and 7 fetal losses). Ten of the 12 pasteurized outbreaks were Listeria, which spreads in cheese and ice cream plants after the milk has been heated.[12] An earlier CDC review covering 1993 to 2006 counted 2 deaths from unpasteurized dairy products.[13] Taken together, documented deaths linked to raw milk in North American outbreak records number in the single digits across three decades.

The rate per serving is a stronger argument against raw milk than the death count. Because so few Americans drink it, a small number of illnesses represents a high risk per glass. The same CDC review estimated that unpasteurized dairy caused about 150 times more outbreaks per unit consumed than pasteurized dairy, and that illnesses fell disproportionately on people under 20.[13]

Recent events

A Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak traced to one California raw milk brand sickened 171 people between September 2023 and March 2024; 70% were under 18, and the outbreak strain was found in the dairy's raw milk and in its raw cheese aged 60 days.[22] In February 2026, the New Mexico Department of Health reported the death of a newborn from Listeria and named raw milk the mother drank during pregnancy as the most likely source, while stating the exact source could not be confirmed.[14]

H5N1 avian influenza entered US dairy herds in 2024. As of mid-2026, no human infection has been attributed to drinking milk, though the same strain has infected more than 70 people through other contact with cattle and poultry.[15] Three indoor cats in California developed fever and neurologic signs after drinking store-bought raw milk in November 2024; two died, and virus was recovered from the survivor.[16] Pasteurization inactivates the virus. A 2026 risk model estimated the per-serving infection risk from raw milk at roughly a hundred billion times that of pasteurized milk, with the caveat that whether the bovine strain can infect humans by swallowing remains unknown.[15]

Who died, and what else was going on

Evidence: case-level. Drawn from state health department releases, CDC outbreak records, journal case reports, and independent reporting where it adds facts the official record left out. Where the record is silent, that is stated.

A death count is only as useful as the cases behind it. Here is what the public record shows about the individual deaths that make up the totals above, on both sides.

Deaths linked to raw milk and raw dairy

Florida, 2014 (raw milk, Listeria). This is the death behind the CDC's 2016 announcement of a "multistate outbreak" tied to Miller's Organic Farm in Pennsylvania. The outbreak consisted of two people, one in California and one in Florida, both over 65, both hospitalized in 2014. The Florida patient died. The link was made two years later, when Listeria from a bottle of the farm's chocolate milk collected in late 2015 was found to be closely related, though not identical, to the patients' isolates.[24][25] Independent journalist David Gumpert identified the Florida patient as a 73-year-old woman who had recently had a stroke, had been diagnosed with advanced cancer, and was on chemotherapy at the time. Her family told him they never saw her drink raw milk; a relative who belonged to the farm's buying club had purchased it, which is the basis for the CDC's statement that the family "reported purchasing raw milk."[26] The CDC record lists the cause of death as listeriosis and does not mention the cancer diagnosis or the chemotherapy.

Connecticut and Vermont, 2016 to 2017 (raw milk cheese, Listeria). Eight people in four states were infected with a strain matched to Ouleout cheese from Vulto Creamery in New York. All eight were hospitalized, a newborn among them, and two died. Ages across the outbreak ran from under one year to 89 with a median of 52. The ages and health status of the two who died were not published, and the Connecticut health department's release gives no detail beyond residency.[27]

New Mexico, 2026 (newborn, Listeria). The state health department reported that a newborn died of Listeria infection and named raw milk the mother drank during pregnancy as the most likely source, while stating that investigators could not confirm it. No product was identified or tested, and no other cases were reported.[14]

Two deaths with no public case record. The national surveillance paper counts three raw fluid milk deaths between 1998 and 2018: the Florida case above, one Campylobacter death somewhere in 2013 to 2018, and one earlier death. For the latter two, the paper gives no age, state, or health status, and I could not find a case report or press release describing either.[11] The US–Canada review's five raw dairy deaths over 2007 to 2020 are likewise reported as a total without individual detail.[12]

The serious non-fatal harm is better documented. Among 675 raw milk illnesses from 2013 to 2018, 98 people were hospitalized, ten developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (the kidney complication of E. coli O157, mostly in children), and two developed Guillain-Barré or Miller Fisher syndrome after Campylobacter.[11] The 2024 to 2026 Raw Farm E. coli outbreak added one child with kidney failure. Those cases, more than the death count, are the strongest part of the case against.

Deaths linked to pasteurized dairy

Kansas, 2014 to 2015 (ice cream, Listeria). Five patients at one Wichita hospital developed listeriosis after drinking milkshakes made with Blue Bell single-serve ice cream during their stays; three died. All five had been admitted for unrelated conditions before they were infected. A Kansas Department of Health and Environment spokeswoman told the Associated Press that listeriosis did not cause the three deaths but may have been a contributing factor.[28]

Ontario, 2015 to 2016 (chocolate milk, Listeria). Thirty-four people were infected from pasteurized bagged chocolate milk contaminated after processing; 32 were hospitalized and 4 died. The median age was 73, and one case was a newborn infected before birth. The public was not notified while the outbreak was ongoing, and the source was published in a journal three years later.[29]

California and Ohio, 2010 to 2015 (soft cheeses, Listeria). Thirty people across ten states, median age 73, were infected with strains traced to soft cheeses distributed by Karoun Dairies. Twenty-eight were hospitalized, three died, and one pregnancy ended in fetal loss.[30] Smaller pasteurized cheese outbreaks in 2013 and 2014 (Crave Brothers, Roos Foods, Oasis Brands) were each linked to one death, and several of those illnesses were in pregnant women or newborns.[12]

What the case records have in common

On both sides, nearly every documented death is Listeria, and nearly every person who died was over 65, hospitalized for something else, on chemotherapy, pregnant, or newborn. No healthy adult or older child appears among the dead on either list. That matches how Listeria behaves: healthy people who swallow it rarely develop invasive disease, while people with weakened immune systems are the ones who do. It also means "raw milk kills" and "pasteurized milk kills" are both true statements and both poor guidance for a healthy adult deciding between the two. The relevant question for that person is the hospitalization and HUS data above. For a pregnant woman or someone on immune-suppressing treatment, the Listeria record applies to every soft cheese and deli case in the store, not only to the raw milk cooler.

Open questions

  • In the Florida 2014 case, the genetic match was described as "closely related," not identical, and the patient was on chemotherapy with two hospital stays. Whether she drank the milk at all rests on one relative's purchase against the family's account.[25][26]
  • Two of the three raw milk deaths in the national count have no published case description of any kind.[11]
  • Underlying conditions are rarely recorded in any outbreak summary, raw or pasteurized, so "died of listeriosis" and "died with listeriosis" cannot be separated from public data on either side. Kansas is the only case where a state agency drew that distinction out loud.[28]
  • Deaths enter these totals only when they fall inside a recognized outbreak, meaning two or more linked cases. A single death from a single contaminated bottle is in none of these counts, in either direction.[11]

Why is raw milk more controversial than lettuce?

Evidence: the counts are solid. How to compare them is a matter of interpretation, and both sides of that argument are given here.

The largest US attribution study assigned foodborne illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths to 17 food categories using outbreak data from 1998 through 2008. Leafy vegetables caused more illnesses than any other category, 22% of the total, along with 14% of hospitalizations and 6% of deaths. With 1,451 deaths attributed per year, that works out to about 87 deaths a year from leafy greens alone.[17] Raw fluid milk, over a longer window, was linked to 3 deaths total.[11]

Nobody has proposed banning romaine. The public health response to a lettuce outbreak is a recall and a reminder to wash produce, and the product is back on shelves within weeks. Raw milk is the only common food that health agencies advise every person to avoid entirely.

The argument that well-sourced raw milk is safer than raw produce

Raw milk from a licensed, tested dairy is one ingredient from one farm, chilled from the moment it leaves the cow, with a name on the bottle and a phone number to call. Bagged salad is pooled from many fields, washed in shared water, shipped across the country, and eaten by nearly everyone, so a single contaminated field can reach thousands of people before anyone connects the cases. Traceability, cold chain, and accountability all favor the milk. The raw milk outbreak rate also fell as more states legalized sales: controlling for population and consumption growth, the rate of raw milk outbreaks dropped 74% between 2005 and 2016.[18] Farms that follow strict hygiene programs, including Germany's licensed Vorzugsmilch dairies, produce raw milk with consistently low bacterial counts year after year.[19]

The counterargument

Deaths per year and risk per serving are different measures. Far fewer people drink raw milk than eat lettuce, so the per-glass risk is higher even though the yearly toll is lower.[13] If raw milk consumption matched salad consumption, the death count would not stay at three. Raw milk illnesses also fall heavily on children, and Listeria in pregnancy can kill a newborn after a mild illness in the mother.[14] Regulators can require pasteurization at the plant, but they cannot cook your salad for you, which is why milk is regulated at the source and produce is regulated by advisory.

Both arguments are correct on their own terms. The sourcing argument holds when the source is good. The per-serving argument holds across all raw milk, including the farm with no testing program and the gallon that sat warm in a truck. Which one applies to you depends on where your milk comes from, which is the subject of the sourcing section below.

Why raw milk was demonized

Evidence: historical record, the Rockefeller Institute's own archive, two peer-reviewed economics studies of city death records, and a 1939 milk sanitarians' journal.

In the 1850s, New York City dairies kept cows tethered beside distilleries and fed them the hot spent mash from whiskey production. The animals were sick, the stables were filthy, and the thin milk was whitened with chalk and plaster before it was sold to city families as country milk. Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper exposed the trade in 1858 with the now-famous engraving of a dying cow held upright by ropes while being milked. Infant deaths in the city were counted in the thousands per year. Before refrigeration and before tuberculosis testing of herds, milk was a major route for bovine tuberculosis, brucellosis, and typhoid. Chicago required pasteurization in 1909 and New York in 1914. Infant mortality did fall sharply in those years, but the same decade brought milk inspection, herd testing, mechanical refrigeration, and filtered city water. The next paragraph looks at which of those the death records credit.

Rockefeller money did enter the story, though not the way the raw milk lore usually tells it. The Rockefeller Institute's first grant, in 1901, paid for a survey of New York's milk supply. The survey found bacterial counts in tenement grocery milk thousands of times above the level its investigators considered safe. It released the findings to the newspapers to force action and got the city to fund milk inspectors. Its own recommendations were clean barns, washed hands, and cold storage, and the infants in its feeding trial who did well were drinking raw milk from farms the inspectors had approved.[31] Economists who have since gone back to the city-level death records find that dairy farm inspections cut diarrheal deaths in one-year-olds by about 14%,[32] that water filtration cut infant mortality by 11 to 12%, and that the pasteurization ordinances passed between 1910 and 1930 show no measurable contribution of their own.[33] Pasteurization arrived as the milk supply was already being cleaned up by inspection and refrigeration, and it is hard to separate its effect from theirs.

The people who built the pasteurization system said as much at the time. In the November 1939 issue of the Journal of Milk Technology, the trade journal of the milk inspectors' associations, a Texas Tech dairy professor training plant operators wrote that pasteurization "will not improve the quality of milk" and "simply adds an additional safeguard, or as we often refer to it, an insurance policy."[34] The same issue reports that New York's state veterinarian had traced nearly all of the large milkborne epidemics of septic sore throat, and many of scarlet fever, to cows with mastitis whose udders had been infected by a milker with a throat infection. It also records the herd testing that was changing the cow itself. Over the previous 20 years New York had tuberculin-tested 20 million cattle at an average of 48 reactors per thousand, and by 1936 to 1938 the rate had fallen to 15 per thousand.[34] The counterweight is in the same pages. About 99% of city milk in New York was pasteurized by 1939 against 80% statewide, and 58 of the 59 milkborne epidemics recorded in the state over the previous eleven years had occurred in rural areas, from the fifth of the supply that was still raw and largely unsupervised.[34]

That history is why the word raw still alarms people. Since then, US dairy herds have come under routine testing for tuberculosis and brucellosis, milk moves through closed stainless steel systems, it is chilled within minutes, and a lab can detect a handful of pathogen cells in a sample. A tested gallon from a licensed dairy in 2026 has little in common with the swill milk of 1858, or with the unsupervised farm milk of 1939, beyond the word on the label.

How to lower the risk if you choose raw milk

Evidence: moderate. The practices below are the ones that separate low-count farms from the rest in published farm studies.[19]

Food safety for raw milk starts at the farm and ends in your refrigerator. Buy from a dairy that is licensed or registered where that is available, and that tests its milk on a schedule. Ask to see recent results for standard plate count, coliforms, and pathogen screens; a farm that tests will be glad to show you. Visit if you can. Look at whether the cows are clean, whether milking happens in a closed system, and how fast the milk goes into the chiller. Keep the milk at or below 40°F (4°C) from the farm to your refrigerator, and drink it within a week. Raw milk sours rather than rots when it turns, and a sour smell means the lactic bacteria have taken over; that milk is fine for clabber but not for drinking fresh. Anyone who wants the option to pasteurize at home can hold the milk at 161°F (72°C) for 15 seconds, so buying raw keeps both options open.

Frequently asked questions

What is raw milk?

Raw milk is milk straight from the cow, goat, or sheep that has been filtered and chilled but never heated. Pasteurized milk has been held at 161°F (72°C) for 15 seconds; ultra-pasteurized milk at 275°F (135°C) or higher. Raw milk keeps its cream line, its live lactic acid bacteria, and its heat-sensitive enzymes and proteins, and it also keeps whatever bacteria were in the milking parlor.

Is raw milk good for you?

The studies that favor raw milk are about early childhood. Children who drank raw farm milk in the first years of life had lower odds of asthma, hay fever, and common infections in large European cohorts and one meta-analysis, and US adults who drank raw milk as children had better lung function at 63.[6][7][8] No trial has tested raw milk in adults for any health outcome, and the calcium, bone, and lactose claims have not held up under controlled testing.[3][4]

Is raw milk healthier than pasteurized milk?

On protein, fat, lactose, calcium, and most minerals, the two are the same.[35] Standard pasteurization lowers several B vitamins and vitamin C by modest amounts and leaves most immune proteins intact. Ultra-pasteurization, which most organic store milk now uses, reduces lactoferrin, lactoperoxidase, and 21 other immune-active proteins.[1][2] Whether those differences translate into better health for adults has not been tested in a controlled trial.

How much protein is in raw milk?

About 8 grams per cup, split between casein and whey. That figure is the same for raw and pasteurized whole milk, since heat does not remove protein.[35] Raw milk from Jersey or Guernsey cows can run slightly higher in both protein and fat than standardized store milk.

Is raw milk safe to drink?

It depends on the source. Raw milk can carry harmful germs, including Salmonella, E. coli O157, Campylobacter, and Listeria, when the farm's hygiene or cold chain fails. National outbreak records attribute 3 deaths to raw milk over 21 years, and the same records show a higher per-serving illness rate than pasteurized milk because so few people drink it.[11][13] Milk from a tested, licensed dairy with a fast cold chain carries far less risk than untested milk.

Does raw milk help with lactose intolerance?

The only randomized trial found no difference in breath hydrogen or symptoms between raw and pasteurized milk in adults with confirmed lactose malabsorption.[3] Some people still report tolerating raw milk better, and the trial was small, but the claim is not supported by controlled evidence so far. If dairy causes symptoms, the food intolerance versus allergy article explains how to tell the two apart.

How many people have died from raw milk?

US outbreak surveillance attributes 3 deaths to raw fluid milk from 1998 through 2018, and a US-Canada review of lab-confirmed outbreaks attributes 5 deaths to unpasteurized dairy products from 2007 through 2020. The same review attributes 17 deaths to pasteurized dairy products, most from Listeria in cheese.[11][12] These are outbreak attributions, not confirmed causes of death: one of the three raw milk deaths was a 73-year-old on chemotherapy whose family says she never drank the milk, two have no published case record at all, and the 2026 New Mexico newborn death was linked to raw milk by state officials who said the source could not be confirmed.[14][26] The people behind these numbers, and what else was going on in each case, are described in the who died section above.

Does pasteurization destroy the nutrients in milk?

Standard pasteurization lowers several B vitamins and vitamin C by modest amounts and leaves most immune proteins in place. Ultra-pasteurization reduces lactoferrin, lactoperoxidase, and other heat-sensitive proteins substantially.[1][2] Calcium absorption is unchanged.[4]

Why is raw milk illegal in some states?

Federal rules only ban interstate sale. States set their own rules, and about a dozen still prohibit any sale, citing the outbreak history above. Most states now allow sale in some form, and the trend since 2010 has been toward more access.[18][20]

Sources

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  9. Weber M, Hehn F, Huynh Y, et al. Prevention of allergies and infections by minimally processed milk in infants: the MARTHA feasibility and safety trial. Pediatr Allergy Immunol. 2024;35(10):e14251. doi:10.1111/pai.14251
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  14. New Mexico Department of Health. Health department warns against consuming raw dairy products. News release, February 3, 2026. nmhealth.org
  15. Koebel K, et al. Quantitative microbial risk assessment of human H5N1 infection from consumption of fluid cow's milk. Risk Anal. 2026;46(7):e70264. doi:10.1111/risa.70264
  16. Frye EA, Nooruzzaman M, Cronk B, et al. Isolation of highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) virus from cat urine after raw milk ingestion, United States. Emerg Infect Dis. 2025;31(8). doi:10.3201/eid3108.250309
  17. Painter JA, Hoekstra RM, Ayers T, et al. Attribution of foodborne illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths to food commodities by using outbreak data, United States, 1998–2008. Emerg Infect Dis. 2013;19(3):407-415. Authors are CDC staff. doi:10.3201/eid1903.111866
  18. Whitehead J, Lake B. Recent trends in unpasteurized fluid milk outbreaks, legalization, and consumption in the United States. PLoS Curr. 2018;10. doi:10.1371/currents.outbreaks.bae5a0fd685616839c9cf857792730d1
  19. Berge AC, Baars T. Raw milk producers with high levels of hygiene and safety. Epidemiol Infect. 2020;148:e14. Authors work in organic dairy research and veterinary consulting. PMID 32000877
  20. 21 CFR § 1240.61, Mandatory pasteurization for all milk and milk products in final package form intended for direct human consumption. ecfr.gov
  21. Montana Department of Livestock. Raw Milk and Montana Local Food Choice Act FAQ. November 2024. liv.mt.gov (PDF)
  22. Outbreak of Salmonella Typhimurium infections linked to commercially distributed raw milk, California and four other states, September 2023–March 2024. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2025. Authors are California Department of Public Health and CDC staff. PMC12309738
  23. Research progress of milk and dairy products to prevent caries. J Funct Foods. 2023. Reports the 1966 Weiss and Bibby enamel solubility comparison of raw, pasteurized whole, and skim milk. sciencedirect.com
  24. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Multistate outbreak of listeriosis linked to raw milk produced by Miller's Organic Farm in Pennsylvania. Final update, December 14, 2016. Government record; the agency's position on raw milk is stated in the document. archive.cdc.gov
  25. Nichols M, Conrad A, Whitlock L, et al. Multistate outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes infections retrospectively linked to unpasteurized milk using whole-genome sequencing. J Dairy Sci. 2020;103(1):176-178. Authors are CDC, FDA, and state health department staff. doi:10.3168/jds.2019-16703
  26. Gumpert D. CDC misconduct? Raw milk "death" victim was treated for advanced cancer. March 23, 2016. Gumpert is an independent journalist and author of books favoring raw milk access; his account rests on interviews with the patient's family. davidgumpert.com
  27. Connecticut Department of Public Health. DPH investigates multi-state Listeria outbreak related to NY-based Vulto Creamery. Press release, March 2017. Case counts from the CDC final update of May 2017. portal.ct.gov
  28. NBC News / Associated Press. Blue Bell ice cream recall after listeriosis linked to 3 deaths. March 14, 2015. Secondary report; cited for the on-record statement of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment spokeswoman that listeriosis did not cause the deaths but may have contributed. nbcnews.com
  29. Hanson H, Whitfield Y, Lee C, et al. Listeria monocytogenes associated with pasteurized chocolate milk, Ontario, Canada. Emerg Infect Dis. 2019;25(3):581-584. Authors are Public Health Ontario staff. doi:10.3201/eid2503.180742
  30. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Multistate outbreak of listeriosis linked to soft cheeses distributed by Karoun Dairies, Inc. Final update, October 23, 2015. archive.cdc.gov
  31. Snyder M. Sour milk: preventing infant mortality with public health. Rockefeller Archive Center, REsource, May 6, 2020. Written by the Center's archivist from the Rockefeller Institute's 1901 board minutes and milk survey report; the Center is funded by Rockefeller philanthropies. resource.rockarch.org
  32. Komisarow S. Public health regulation and mortality: evidence from early 20th century milk laws. J Health Econ. 2017;56:126-144. sciencedirect.com
  33. Anderson DM, Charles KK, Rees DI. Reexamining the contribution of public health efforts to the decline in urban mortality. Am Econ J Appl Econ. 2022;14(2):126-157. doi:10.1257/app.20190034
  34. Journal of Milk Technology. 1939;2(6). Renner KM, The training of pasteurization plant operators, pp. 286-289; Marquardt JC, Goat's milk and its supervision, pp. 280-285; Palmer WB, The relationship between state and municipal supervision of milk supplies, pp. 290-294. Published by the International Association of Milk Sanitarians; archived by the International Association for Food Protection. foodprotection.org (PDF)
  35. US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, SR Legacy entry 172217: Milk, whole, 3.25% milkfat, without added vitamin A and vitamin D. Values per 244 g cup. Government nutrient database; used for composition figures only. fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ivy Ham

I’m Ivy Ham, a clinical herbalist dedicated to blending traditional healing wisdom with modern science, and revealing how nature’s remedies can enhance everyday wellness. Through my blog, I share insights on herbal solutions, nutrition, and holistic practices to guide you toward a more balanced, vibrant life.

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