SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4) – Some call it milk’s dirty little secret - that some milk, mostly chocolate milk, can be contaminated. For Utah moms who want to know, the answer should be comforting.
Many parents swear by milk as a staple of their family’s diet. Ask any dairyman and he’ll tell you it’s not uncommon to see a large Utah family consume ten gallons per week.
A new study out of Florida State University may have you looking into your glass and wondering what you’re about to swallow.
“Chocolate milk has significantly more bacteria than white milk,” says Dr. Kevin Pegg of Florida State University.
He and his colleagues have been conducting laboratory tests on milk, particularly chocolate milk, for traces of bacteria. What they have found could cause you to lose your thirst. The university’s testing showed the chocolate milk samples contained high levels of bacteria. Pegg explains why.
"Sometimes it’s because it started out with a high rate of contamination. It may have failed pasteurization the first time and after repeated pasteurization, it will sometimes develop a yellow color. Then it can no longer be sold as white milk so they put chocolate in it.”
The lab test results were unappetizing.
“We have run these tests and found enteric bacteria,” Pegg said, bacteria you’d normally associate with fecal material.” He went on to say, “Sometimes it’s just because of extra handling steps for blending. There’s more opportunity for getting microbes present.”
Unlike a carton of spoiled milk, bacteria tainted milk can’t be detected by the sniffing it.
"Simply sniffing the milk is not a good indication if it could cause illness because many pathogens have organisms that can be in milk and they don’t have an odor,” says the doctor.
All that raises the question: Can Utah milk be tainted?
"There’s no chance at all,” says Utah Dairy Farmers Association Executive Director Karen Koncar. She is unequivocal.
“No chance at all,” she repeats.
That confidence is well earned. Utah milk is recognized as the best tasting and highest quality in America, surpassing the industry’s national standards.
Koncar insists the pasteurization process in Utah dairies doesn’t include repasteurizing milk until its yellow and turning it into chocolate milk.
“All our chocolate milk starts out as white milk, then we add the chocolate,” she says.
None of that, however, means your milk can’t go bad after it leaves the grocery store. Koncar says that milk, if left in temperatures above forty degrees, can begin to grow bacteria in as little as fifteen minutes.
“If they’re gong to the store and they know they’re going to be in their car for twenty or thirty minutes,” Koncar says, “it might be nice to have a cooler in the trunk that they put their perishables in, milk and other dairy products.”
The secret is out: Even good milk can go bad. When you pick up one of America’s most wholesome foods, handle with care.
