this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2024
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Judge dismisses judicial review of Public Health Act regulation concerning raw milk

A man's latest attempt to challenge B.C.'s rules on unpasteurized milk — also known as "raw milk" — was dismissed in the province's Supreme Court.

Gordon S. Watson sought a judicial review of the province's regulation of unpasteurized milk as a health hazard subject to "significant restrictions" under the Public Health Act.

Justice Bill Veenstra wrote Watson mostly wanted a legal opinion that a practice known as "cow-sharing" allows raw milk distribution and to restart a previous constitutional challenge. Watson also sought "various declarations" and an injunction against the enforcement of raw milk rules.

But Veenstra noted Watson had been before the courts in 2010 and 2013 on raw milk issues and dismissed his latest effort under "res judicata" — a legal doctrine which prevents relitigating matters that have already been decided.

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[–] Sunshine@lemmy.ca 15 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Why do people want raw dairy milk?

[–] WashedOver@lemmy.ca 18 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Some argue the pasteurization ruins nutritional value. It's too bad these people don't remember all the people dying from drinking raw milk in the past, but it's outside of our recent memories. It's sort of down antivax lane.

[–] HelixDab2@lemm.ee 4 points 3 weeks ago

Flavor also. It just tastes different. OTOH, there's no reasonable way to ensure that it's safe when done on a large enough scale to be remotely profitable; most listeria is because the udders/teats are inadequately cleaned, and thus act as a vector for contamination.

[–] xmunk@sh.itjust.works -5 points 3 weeks ago

This really isn't the case. If dairy products are well handled, cows are monitored, and there's routine testing then you can avoid the kind of disease outbreaks we had in the past. It's just cheaper to boil the shit out of milk.

[–] breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca -1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I'd love to be able to get some to make cheese.

[–] GetOffMyLan@programming.dev 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Raw milk cheese has exactly the same health risks unfortunately. Which is a shame because it's supposed to make better cheese.

[–] breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 weeks ago

No it doesn't.

Raw milk is illegal in Canada. Raw milk cheese is legal everywhere in Canada as long as it's aged at least 60 days. Though in Quebec, higher risk younger unpasteurized cheese is also legal. Unpasteurized cheese is also ubiquitous - available just about anywhere you can buy cheese. Anyone buying high end cheese is probably eating it without realizing it.

I think people mix up young and aged raw milk cheese. Aged 60+ days, the risks of pasteurized and unpasteurized cheese are about the same (very low but not zero). There isn't even any sort of pressure to ban them.

[–] jerkface@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 weeks ago