Whole Foods to Stop Raw Milk Sales in Several States
My friend David Gumpert over at The Complete Patient broke the news tonight that Whole Foods will be stopping raw milk sales in its stores in several states - "Another Body Blow to Food Choice As Whole Foods Discontinues Raw Milk Sales in At Least Four States." I am sure that the cessation of sales had nothing to do with a post I did several months ago - "Risky Business - Why would a retailer, like Whole Foods, sell Raw Milk?" Most likely it is simply that Whole Foods values its customers like:
Margot Standish was seven years old in June 2008, when she became infected with E. coli O157:NM as the result of consumption of raw milk. Her symptoms began in late June, with diarrhea, vomiting, and abdominal cramps. Her regular physician treated Margot over the period of more than a week, but her condition began to deteriorate, and she was admitted to the hospital on July 8. Laboratory tests conducted that day provided evidence that Margot had been suffering from hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). Thankfully, Margot’s renal insufficiency did not deepen to the point that dialysis was required. She remained hospitalized through July 14. Medical bills exceeded $30,000. As a result of her HUS, Margot will need to have her renal function monitored regularly for the rest of her life.
And, Kalee Prue, a 27-year-old mother of one, became infected with E. coli O157:NM in June 2008, as the result of consumption of raw milk. Her symptoms began in early July, and intensified for several days. On two occasions, Kalee sought treatment in the emergency room. On July 12, it became apparent that she was developing hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). She was then admitted to the hospital on July 13. Kalee’s renal failure was complete and prolonged, and she required plasmapharesis from July 13 through August 11. Severe anemia necessitated repeated transfusions with packed red blood cells as well. By the time she was released from the hospital on August 14, she had incurred over $230,000 in medical bills. Kalee has not recovered full renal function. She is at severe risk for long-term renal complications, including end stage renal disease (ESRD), dialysis, and transplant.
Both Margot and Kalee where part of the same E. coli O157:NM Outbreak. The milk they consumed was purchased at Whole Foods.
On July 16, 2008, the Connecticut Department of Public Health (CDPH) was investigating two cases of HUS as part of its routine surveillance. Interviews conducted in these investigations revealed that both children had consumed raw milk in the week before the onset of their illnesses. Both children had consumed raw milk produced by the Simsbury Town Farm Dairy. CDPH notified the Connecticut Department of Agriculture (CDA), and opened an investigation. In the following two weeks five additional confirmed and seven additional probable cases of E. coli O157:NM infection, each associated with consumption of raw milk from the Simsbury Town Farm Dairy.
As part of the investigation of the outbreak, CDA conducted an environmental inspection of the Simsbury Town Farm Dairy. CDA found a number of troubling practices at the dairy. These included: manual bottling of raw milk directly from the bulk tank; failure to cap valves; an improper seal around the shaft of the transport tank; and a biofilm protein residue found inside the transport tank. In addition, investigators found a number of “poor hygienic practices” at the dairy. Among these was the storage of a stainless steel milk tank in an exposed unsanitary bucket. In addition, investigators found a lack of hand soap, a lack of hot water and the hand-washing sink, and soiled floors. Flies were observed in the bulk milk storage tank room. The dairy workers were unable to identify the dairy’s sanitation process for glass milk bottles that were re-used. It was also noted that the glass bottles from the dairy did not feature the statutorily required consumer advisory language.
A laboratory study was also conducted. Of the six patients that cultured positive for E. coli O157:NM, 5 had a “genetic fingerprint” that was indistinguishable. The sixth varied very slightly on one test. Samples of feces from the cows at the dairy were also tested. One of the tests was positive for E. coli O157:NM of a strain matching that of the group of five patients. The CDPH concluded: “several findings from this investigation indicated that consumption of raw milk from Farm X [Simsbury] was the cause of the outbreak.”
Comments (16)
Read through and enter the discussion by using the form at the endDavid Gumpert - March 13, 2010 11:59 AM
Say, Bill, surely you remember that more than 30 people were sickened around the country in 2008 by E. coli 0157:H7 from beef purchased at Whole Foods.
http://www.boston.com/news/health/blog/2008/08/more_on_whole_f.html
You happen to have a link to your blog post threatening to sue Whole Foods if they continue to carry beef? How about the case histories of people sickened? You have those to remind us of the terrible dangers of eating beef? Really wish you would share those.
David Gumpert
www.thecompletepatient.com
Bill Marler - March 13, 2010 6:16 PM
David, some how your comment went into the junk folder. I am sure it was not intentional. Did I threaten to sue Whole Foods for selling raw milk? I think not. My point is that it is risky business given that the farmers have limited insurance and that Whole Foods would be left holding the udder in case of an outbreak.
And, yes, I have posted on hamburger and Whole Foods. Frankly, if you change the product to raw milk, this post looks much like posts I have done regarding raw milk:
http://www.marlerblog.com/2010/02/articles/legal-cases/the-summer-2008-e-coli-o157h7-outbreak-linked-to-nebraska-beef-and-whole-foods-a-story-of-companies-out-of-control-leaving-victims-in-its-wake/
Here is a bit(e) more detail about Whole Paycheck and hamburger:
http://www.marlerblog.com/2008/08/articles/legal-cases/whole-foods-e-coli-cases-traced-to-nebraska-beef-ltd-meat/
Again, David as we have discussed several times, it is not raw milk or small Ag that I focus on. It is generally mega-corporations. However, whether you are a Cargill or Organic Pastures, if you poison a little kid, you need to be responsible.
David Gumpert - March 13, 2010 6:53 PM
Guess what I was really looking for was this sentence, with "beef" substituted for "raw milk".
"So, why would a retailer, like Whole Foods, sell raw milk? Perhaps eighteen dollars a gallon?"
Did I miss that sentence? If so, I apologize.
Bill Marler - March 13, 2010 7:57 PM
David, how often is hamburger sold for that amount? How often is it cited as "the perfect food." Generally, and with my advice, hamburger should not be eaten raw either.
Marymary - March 13, 2010 9:06 PM
Not sure why I'm weighing in on this, but here I go:
Beef is cooked before being eaten. Raw milk is not, therefore, any harmful organisms that are present are not killed off by cooking, as they would be--or at least should be--before consuming meat, fish, or poultry.
I read this blog fairly frequently, so I know that Mr. Marler posts about problems with foods other than raw milk. He has posted several times in the last several months about beef. He has not singled out raw milk for criticism, despite what some of the raw milkists think.
I'm not sure why there is so much hostility every time raw milk is implicated in foodborne illness outbreaks or mentioned on this blog. There seems to be no point in trying to reason with anyone who is a raw milk advocate. According to the raw milk advocates, any science that doesn't support their views is bogus. Inspectors who write up raw milk dairies are in cahoots with agribusiness. People who have been sickened really got sick from something else, despite evidence linking their illnesses to raw milk consumption. And so on and so on.
Wholefoods made a business decision, likely based upon weighing the risks of tort liability v. the benefits of selling raw milk to the relatively small number of people who buy it. It is also possible that they were afraid of running afoul of the varying state laws on sales of raw milk. There is no constitutional right to consume raw milk, and Wholefoods is under no obligation to sell it in its stores.
Catherine - March 14, 2010 4:06 AM
I've weighed in on raw milk in this blog before. I'm actually glad Whole Foods has stopped selling it because the problem is that it is not stored well (at least in the WF I've been to here in CT). It needs to be kept scrupulously cold, and put out right away. It really should be sold in a case with a door on it that keeps it at an optimum temp.
(I buy my milk in summer, from the farmer, put it right in a cooler and bring it home)
And about the raw hamburger...I find it ironic that we can't have steak tartare here. Loved it in Paris.
Marymary - March 14, 2010 4:51 PM
@Catherine. I'm pretty sure that Wholefoods, like any other major supermarket chain, transports milk and other foods in refrigerated trucks that are much cooler than system you would have set up in your car. The milk would then be immediately transferred into cold storage at the store. This cold storage is much cooler than most people keep their home refrigerators. Unless there has been a serious breakdown in procedures, there is very little likelihood that raw milk or pastuerized milk at a major grocery store has spent an appreciable amount of time outside of temperature control. I'm not defending Wholefoods, simply stating how most supermarkets transport and store their food.
If organisms that lead to foodborne illness are in the milk from Wholefoods, those organisms were likely there long before Wholefoods ever transported or received the food, and were likely there due to poor practices at the farm, not poor practices by the retailer. I've done a lot of supermarket inspections, and while the chains were certainly capable of having problems, the worst places were always the small, Mom-and-Pop operations that had no clue about the importance of cold transport, struggled to keep their cold-storage equipment in good repair, and had no policies and procedures for dealing with refrigeration failure.
I would never say that large chains don't have problems, because they can and they do, but I find it highly unlikely that an ordinary consumer has the means to keep milk colder than a large supermarket does. I wasn't aware that Wholefoods sold milk in coolers without doors, but even if they do, if the cooler is functioning properly that should not cause a problem. Open coolers are often at temperatures much cooler than your home refrigerator. You may not believe that they are effective at keeping food cold, but as long as their has been no equipment failure, open coolers can and do keep food well below 41 degrees F. I know it, because I had to take food temperatures in all sorts of open coolers and freezers as part of my previous job. And by the way, keeping milk scrupulously cold isn't going to keep Listeria monocytogenes from multiplying.
Bill Marler - March 14, 2010 4:55 PM
You might disagree with my perspective, but I have tried to be consistent:
1. Raw milk should be sold only on farms that are certified by the state and inspected and tested regularly. Make ambiguous black market milk/cheese sales and "pet food sales" meant for human consumption clearly illegal;
2. Raw milk should not be sold in grocery stores or across state lines--the risks of mass production and transportation are too great; the risk of a casual purchase by someone misunderstanding the risks is too great, as well;
3. Farms should be required to have insurance coverage sufficient to cover reasonable damages to their customers;
4. Practices such as outsourcing (buying raw milk from farms not licensed for raw milk production) should be illegal;
5. Colostrum should be regulated as a dairy product, not a nutritional supplement;
6. Warning signs on the bottles and at point-of-purchase should be mandatory. An example: "WARNING: This product has not been pasteurized and may contain harmful bacteria (not limited to E. coli O157:H7, Campylobacter, Listeria and Salmonella). Pregnant women, infants, children, the elderly and persons with lowered resistance to disease (immune compromised) have the highest risk of harm, which includes Diarrhea, Vomiting, Fever, Dehydration, Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, Reactive Arthritis, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Miscarriage, or Death, from use of this product."
Erin Wright - March 17, 2010 12:55 PM
Bill --
As a California resident who for years has chosen to drink raw milk, after researching the dangers (and the dangers of pasteurized milk, not that anyone likes to talk about that), my problem with Whole Foods pulling raw milk off the shelves in California is that the raw milk here met every single one of your 6 criteria. It's locally produced, highly regulated (far above regulations for pasteurized milk), totally safe product. California law ensures that it is. Why should I have to suffer for something some farmer in Connecticut did?
I'll no longer be shopping at Whole Foods because of this. I can buy my raw milk legally direct from the same local dairies Whole Foods used to support. I would rather the money go into their pockets, than into the pockets of a multi-national corporation masquerading as health-friendly and supportive of local farmers, anyway. Shame on Whole Foods.
Bill - March 18, 2010 5:34 PM
Bill is just mad cause he was an abused child and a child molester.
KJP - March 19, 2010 4:43 PM
wow... I cannot believe someone would stoop so low as that last comment... as Mr Marler has said before, drinking raw milk must make people ANGRY... Get a grip man, Bill Marler did not make the decision for Whole Foods. And Bill Marler is NOT the one who is making people sick with contaminated foods (Raw Milk being just ONE example)..."Bill" Breathe in deep a few times and for goodness sake, APOLOGIZE for your nastiness if you have an OUNCE of class!
JRR - March 21, 2010 12:57 PM
This article and most posts talk about dangers of raw milk. It doesn't mention the dangers of pasteurized milk. I was very sick with asthma, had a couple of near-death experiences from it. I didn't have a milk allergy. I was on medications, inhalers, all sorts of things, even had to carry an epi-pen in my purse for emergency situations. I had the worry of taking all of this stuff, carrying it with me, filling the prescriptions, going to visit the doctor, miss work - I was a prisoner of asthma.
One day, I met a person who had some different views about nutrition. This person was not an MD and I was trained throughout my life to trust MDs, so I had a hard time trusting this person and taking their advice. I had been trained that unpasteurized milk is basically poison, so when he told me to switch to raw milk, not only was I skeptical, I was scared.
I knew I either had to quit drinking milk or switch to raw milk. I eat a lot of cereals and milk products and had not cared for the texture or taste of almond milk or rice milk. I decided to switch to raw milk.
After a few weeks, all of my asthma was gone. I no longer needed epi-pen, inhalers, two pill medications - my seasonal hay fever and other allergies were also gone. I was on six medications a day for various ailments. I was able to stop taking all of those medications.
This was five years ago - I am still drinking raw milk and still not taking all of those medications. I can also report that I don't catch flu or colds as often, I think due to my immune system being free to tackle those things rather than all of the free-floating micro-milk particles floating through my system (see what homogenizing milk does to it and how the particles are so small, they leak through the digestive system into your body), and the enzymes required to properly digest milk are not killed off by heat.
The problem is not with the milk, it is with the farmers. Remember the break out of e coli in spinach? What about the outbreak in almonds? These are not foods you typically cook when you consume them. Now, it is mandated that all almonds in the US are "pasteurized" with the highly-explosive and cancerous chemical propylene oxide. This chemical is illegal to use on foods even in Mexico and most of the world.
Instead of removing our choices to eat healthy, unprocessed foods, what about cracking down of farming and packaging practices? That is where the problem is. We should be free to eat what we want and if someone is providing it to us for a price, they need to be sure it is safe. Do you think the workers in fields go to porta-potties while they are working to eliminate? I have read studies that say most of the time they don't. That is a big problem. Enforce hand-washing practices, keep packaging plants clean, transport things properly and you don't need to worry about this stuff.
Will this food cost more? Probably. Will medical expenses go down? Probably. I used to spend more than $250 a month and a lot of time on medical expenses before the switch. I use that savings to buy better quality food. I feel better, rarely get sick, have more time and energy. I wouldn't trade this for anything.
My son was raised on raw milk since he was in my belly. He is one of the most healthy kids I know. Never had an ear infection, not sick with what is considered normal in our society colds/flu/etc like other kids.
Whole Foods has stopped selling raw milk in California where it is legal and highly-monitored. I will stop shopping at Whole Foods. Thankfully spring is almost here and farmer's markets are going to be going strong again where I won't miss the store.
If people are scared of raw milk, they should be scared to eat anything from the grocery store as there are a lot more risks out there that are far worse.
Patriot Henry - March 22, 2010 8:04 PM
"As part of the investigation of the outbreak, CDA conducted an environmental inspection of the Simsbury Town Farm Dairy. CDA found a number of troubling practices at the dairy. "
So the cause was not raw milk, but rather extremely poor hygiene standards?
Also, wasn't this dairy previously inspected, certified, and otherwise regulated by the government? Wasn't it already under the domain and supervision of multiple government agencies?
"You might disagree with my perspective, but I have tried to be consistent:"
Your perspective is that of a lawyer, a bureaucrat, a politician. I must admit you do an admirable job at attempting to be reasonable - but unfortunately your starting position is so debased as to be beyond salvation.
"1. Raw milk should be sold only on farms that are certified by the state and inspected and tested regularly."
I've studied the history of food and government in America. It's been a long time since many of the people sickened or killed by food were poisoned by non-state certified and inspected and tested sources. The state has shown itself not to be a reliable protector of the public.
"Make ambiguous black market milk/cheese sales and "pet food sales" meant for human consumption clearly illegal;"
War on Cheese! The USDA needs SWAT teams. Think of the children!
"2. Raw milk should not be sold in grocery stores or across state lines--the risks of mass production and transportation are too great;"
The risks are minimal.
" the risk of a casual purchase by someone misunderstanding the risks is too great, as well;"
Of course, that makes sense. You should have to get a license to buy raw milk, and take a class and pass a test to get that license, and have to sign some sort of legal agreement with five thousand pages of fine print.
"3. Farms should be required to have insurance coverage sufficient to cover reasonable damages to their customers"
and reasonable fees for their lawyers, eh?
Farming is a necessary business. Insurance, lawyers, and courts are not. A glass of milk shouldn't be required to support that sort of infrastructure.
"6. Warning signs on the bottles and at point-of-purchase should be mandatory."
Would you favor such a sign for all products that pose similar or greater risks? That would entail just about everything.
dee hollis - March 26, 2010 6:54 PM
Pasturized milk is devoid of living enzymes needed for proper digestion and nutritional assimilation. The practice of eating so many foods and beverages that have been literally cooked to death is responsible for far more illness and early mortality than the very rare cases of raw milk pathogens harming anyone.
Organic dairies that sell raw milk take extra precautions to keep the product clean and the cows/goats healthy, unlikes the careless practices of big dairies that pasturize. For centuries people have thrived on raw milk from their own cows or local farms.
dungu - April 24, 2010 3:23 AM
Raw milk has to be boiled on stove before using. There is nothing in pasturized milk. Vitamin D is a steroid and this can make you overweight. When I applied the milk cream that I got after boiling pasturized milk- my cheeks started swelling up. Raw milk is the the best and it has to be boiled before use.
ladygish - May 7, 2010 6:01 AM
Is no one else bothered by the fact that milk is pasteurized BECAUSE the dairy practices are so filthy and unhygienic?? That is the only reason to pasteurize, period. As we saw in this case, the milk was dirty due to the dairy's practices. It was not the milk itself. Just like human milk, cow milk has natural antibodies to help keep it fresh.
It's utterly ludicrous to condemn a food because of one or more unscrupulous producers. By that logic we should never eat romaine lettuce, beef stroganoff sauce mix, instant beef soup, ground black pepper, french onion dip, fajita seasoning, cheeses, and yellow fin tuna either. Considering those are the food safety recalls from just April and May (two safety recalls in only 7 days this month), I'm hard-pressed to think what we'd be left to eat after cutting out every food that ever had a safety issue.
When Bill Marler starts telling us no one should eat ANY of these foods (and let's not forget other high profile recalls like spinach and peanut butter) THEN I'll take him seriously. It's laughable a person would demonize raw milk as if the actual food was the source of the problem- it's the industry and a lack of oversight. Anybody can see that. How do you suppose humankind survived drinking raw milk up until 1886?? We live in a world where the FDA can make widgets to update people on safety recalls, there are that many. I only posted the food safety recalls, you should see how many there are altogether.
Lastly, if we're going to rail against dairy practices, let's rail against them all. In the standard CAFO-type dairy which Marler promotes, there is a substantial amount of fecal matter in the milk. Rather than stop this, the FDA has decided we will now irradiate milk. I don't know how you feel about it but drinking cow sh*t, sterile or not, is beyond disgusting to me.