Concerns about possible transmission to people drinking unpasteurized milk are being talked about a lot. Apparently they fed mice unpasteurized milk, and they got the virus, but it seems like the temperature required to kill. The virus is higher than what they used to sterilize the milk. How is this safe?
In: Biology
Killing microorganisms by heating them is a function of two things: time and temperature.
If you heat a liquid to a higher temperature, it needs to be sustained at that higher temperature for less time in order to have the same lethality when compared to the liquid being heated to a lower temperature.
So basically: a microorganism can potentially be viable during excursions up to 165° F, but if you heat it to a lower temperature for longer then that will kill it. Milk being pasteurized at 145° F is going to have that temperature held for potentially over half an hour which will kill basically everything. If they were to heat it up to 165° F they would not need to hold it at that temperature for as long, but the higher temperatures affect other things like taste and consistency which is why lower temperatures are used.
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