Raw Milk Advocates Stage 'Milk and Cookies' Protest at FDA
18.05.12
Raw milk is not nutritionally superior to pasteurized milk.
Numerous studies have indicated that pasteurization has minimal impact on milk nutritional quality.
Milk proteins
Normal bovine milk contains about 3 to 3.5% total protein. The two major groups of milk protein are casein (about 80%) and whey proteins (about 20%). The protein quality of pasteurized milk is not different from that of raw milk (Andersson and Oste, 1995).
Using in vitro method, Carbonaro et al (1996) found no difference in protein digestibility between raw milk (80.2%), milk pasteurized at 75°C/15s (80.02%), and milk pasteurized at 80°C/15s (80.3%).
In an animal study (weaning Holtzman male rats), Efigenia et al (1997) evaluated the nutritional quality of bovine milk after pasteurization. After a study period of 28 days, there was no difference in animal weight gain, food intake, food efficiency ration, protein efficiency ratio, or apparent protein digestibility between the rat group that consumed raw bovine milk and the group that consumed pasteurized bovine milk (Efigenia et al., 1997).
Source: Food Safety News