A number of people have expressed much better than I ever could the problems with using a few dramatic child-illness cases to deny nutritional rights (in comments following my last post).
I’d like to add additional arguments—practical, health, and business. Mary McGonigle-Martin argues that the matter of juice pasteurization is irrelevant, practically speaking, because fresh vegetable and fruit juices quickly lose their nutritional vitality. She quotes some Internet advice to that effect–similar to observations I’ve seen from companies that make juicing machines. There are also lots of experts who say that raw milk spoils much more quickly than pasteurized milk.
I’ve been making vegetable and fruit juices for several years, and have experimented with different kinds of packaging, since I tend to make more than I can drink at once. For a time, I just put some plastic wrap over a glass, and refrigerated the leftover juice. I don’t doubt there was significant nutritional deterioration over even a few hours.
But a few months ago, I got the idea of putting the leftover juice into an old wine bottle, and using one of those vacuum pumps with special bottle inserts that help preserve wine in partially-consumed bottles. I don’t have any way to measure the enzyme activity, but just from taste and effect on my energy, I suspect that my packaging approach helps preserve a significant amount of the nutrients and enzymes for at least a few days, and possibly longer. One other thing about fresh vegetable juice—it helps increase body alkalinity, which is thought by some nutrition experts to help reduce cancer.
Entrepreneur that I am, I actually had an idea of trying to commercialize my approach to producing juices. But the legal requirement that all bulk juices be pasteurized kind of puts the kibosh on that idea…not only by me, but any business, including farms, that might want to explore ways to bring such a healthy product to market. In effect, this kind of regulatory approach stymies the kind of innovation that I don’t doubt small local producers could come up with to get us the nutritional benefits of raw juice (and likely raw milk as well)—with ample warnings on the bottles.
I believe the well-meaning people of Safe Tables Our Priority (STOP) are off on a tangent. They are chasing germs, and in the process depriving people of live nutritious food.
As for the idea of forcing meat recalls, yes, I suppose that is okay. But the bigger problem with meat is that much of the supply, even if it isn’t contaminated by E.coli bacteria, is of dubious quality because it’s tainted by antibiotics, and comes from animals that are ill when slaughtered. So STOP gets the government to okay recalls, and thinks it’s solved “the problem,” when actually “the problem” isn’t really addressed at all. In fact, such a window dressing approach effectively takes any debate of the real problem off the table.
THE JUICE OPEN LETTER CAMPAIGN
The Juice Open Letter Campaign consisted of the Juice Open Letter Press Release and a letter which is included below. The letter was sent to parents who were asked to forward it to other parents who might have an interest in it. It ultimately arrived at a listserv for school nurses. It was posted at three parenting sites. A similar letter aimed at seniors was posted at senior sites.
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE UNPASTEURIZED APPLE JUICE/CIDER INDUSTRY
Given both the press and industry education campaigns regarding apple cider practices, we believe that the unpasteurized apple cider Industry is now aware of the facts:
E. coli O157:H7 attacks children, seniors, and the immune impaired, including pregnant women and otherwise healthy adults on antibiotics, with particular virulence. Complications in the at-risk groups are severe, starting with rampant diarrhea and stomach cramps likened to labor pains and proceeding to a blood poisoning that attacks all organs of the body, causing the kidneys to fail first and potentially leading to brain damage, heart failure, coma or death. Because there is no cure, medical treatment is merely supportive. Those who recover initially are at risk of life threatening complications subsequently. In short, the disease severely sickens and can injure and kill its victims.
E. coli O157:H7 contamination in raw apple juice/cider has been identified as the source of four separate epidemics, three of which occured in the fall of 1996 alone. According to Dr. Patricia Griffin of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Sporadic cases are probably common but unrecognized."
E. coli O157:H7 lives in the intestines of healthy cattle, sheep and deer. It is believed that these animals and their fecal matter in the vicinity of apple growing or processing facilities can result in contamination.
E. coli O157:H7 is a pathogen that has only recently emerged as a disease-causing organism . Thus, industry practices that were acceptable for decades can now in the 1990’s result in contamination that is potentially deadly to the at-risk groups. Consumers who grew up drinking apple cider without risk from E. coli O157:H7 may now be at risk.
Using apples that are dropped on the ground and unpotable water are only the most likely ways for fruit/juice to become contaminated. Washing and brushing apples prior to juicing and applying known antimicrobials such as chlorine and phosphoric acid did not prevent the identified outbreaks. In one of the known outbreaks, the apples came from a commercial source that did not use drop apples.
Some members of the unpasteurized apple cider industry consider it acceptable to use dropped apples in producing cider, despite the risk of contamination.
Even with HACCP and quality control standards, the only process used today to ensure that apple juice does not contain pathogenic bacteria is pasteurization. Thus, no unpasteurized product can truly be free of microbial contamination.
The Processed Apples Institute and Apple Processors Association, industry associations that consist of producers, bottlers and distributors of pasteurized juices, have both recommended that the FDA require mandatory pasteurization.
On August 28, 1997, the FDA released a Notice of Intent stating: "Given the severity of the outbreaks with fresh apple juice tha occurred during the 1996 season, the agency strongly encourages processors of unpasteurized apple juices to immediately and voluntarily label their products or provide point of purchase information with any of the model statements or a similar statement that includes the essential elements discussed…Such labeling may be accomplished by use of stickers, placards, brochures, etc." One example the FDA gives of an appropriate warning label is: "WARNING: This product has not been pasteurized and therefore may contain harmful bacteria which can cause serious illness in children, elderly, and persons with weakened immune systems."
It is clear that some members of your industry are not advising consumers of the above facts.
You may not be aware that research conducted by the Processed Apples Institute has indicated that "Although they know that pasteurization does something to apple juice, most consumers are probably not quite sure what that might be." Thus, merely labeling a juice with the word "Unpasteurized" is like posting a sign at the beach that says "Carcharodon carcharias in water." To the average person, this would seem to be harmless enough, unless the person knew that C. carcharias is the great white shark.
Therefore, we IMPLORE you, in the names of the children that have already suffered and been injured drinking unpasteurized apple juice/cider, to inform parents of the risk of E. coli O157:H7 contamination and the deadly complications that can result from it prior to selling cider to them. We ask only that you tell parents what you yourselves know so that no more children are accidentally poisoned by unpasteurized apple juice because their parents were unaware of the risks, as we were.
Laurie Girand
Mother of Unpasteurized Apple Juice Victim
Board Member
S.T.O.P. — Safe Tables Our Priority
Mary
I have found the opposite to be true, but it is highly depended upon the quality of the milk. My raw milk routinely maintains its quality for 3 weeks or more in the fridge. And even after it sours, it is still drinkable; some people prefer sour milk. The same is not true for pasteurized milk when it goes rancid.