I'd take the warnings about raw milk a lot more seriously if they weren't constantly whining about raw oysters and sushi, and telling us to overcook steaks.

Is raw milk less safe than pasteurized? Sure.

Is it less safe than raw oysters? Well, the CDC says about 80,000 people get sick from raw oysters every year. They say there were 2,645 illnesses caused by raw milk from 1998 through 2018.

I'm not going to stop eating raw oysters. And I'm not going to worry about raw milk.

#29

I've actually never had raw milk either. If I knew and trusted the source, I wouldn't hesitate to try it. Mass industrial production? OH F*** NO. It's absolutely ridiculously unsafe at commercial production volumes. Can't buy it in my state, and I've never been anywhere that had it that I'd trust. It's funny, my grandfather actually liked the flavor of "truck milk" better, I remember him telling me that as a kid he lived on a tobacco farm and had some cows, but he liked the pasteurized homogenized stuff better. I'd rather have unhomogenized for sure, there's a local dairy that sells that, and it's much nicer as far as I'm concerned.

Funny thing about the fresh eggs, yeah, they're better, and if they're not pressure washed you don't have to refrigerate them. I've never seen them for sale anywhere around here, I've only gotten them for free from friends with chickens and excess eggs. Some states require any eggs sold to be refrigerated, and once they have been cooled you don't want to let them warm up. And washed eggs should always be refrigerated, in the US washing is required for farms with more than 3000 hens.