State Asked to Consider Ban on Raw Milk Sales

In the wake of the recent listeriosis epidemic, the Los Angeles County Grand Jury has recommended that state officials consider halting the sale of raw, or unpasteurized, milk directly to the public.

The Oct. 10 report was released Wednesday by Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, who said he would “urge the state to do it.”

Primarily affected would by City of Industry-based Alta-Dena Certified Dairy, by far the state’s largest producer of raw milk marketed to the public and one of the nation’s largest dairies.

The grand jury’s four-page report was triggered by an epidemic earlier this year caused by a deadly bacteria, Listeria monocytogenes, which was eventually linked to the Mexican-style soft cheese products produced by Jalisco Mexican Products Inc.

The epidemic caused 39 deaths statewide, more than half of which were in the Los Angeles area.

Jalisco’s plant in Artesia was shut down in mid-June amid a multi-government agency investigation to pinpoint the source of the contamination.

The precise contamination source has still not been isolated. However, in a report released this week, the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta said it found none of the dangerous bacteria in 27 dairy herds--some of which were Alta-Dena’s--that supplied Jalisco.

Without specifically naming Alta-Dena, one of the grand jury’s three recommendations declared that “consideration be given to the advisability of pasteurization of all milk and milk products sold to the public.”

Pasteurization, the quick heating of milk to 161 degrees and sustained at that temperature for 15 seconds, kills the dangerous Listeria bacteria, health officials have said.

Alta-Dena shipped its own raw milk and raw milk from other dairies to the Jalisco plant.

“My gosh, (raw milk) had nothing to do with (the outbreak),” said Alta-Dena’s chief executive, Harold Stueve, when asked Wednesday to comment on the grand jury report. “It’s the safest milk in the world, bar none. That’s nature’s most perfect food. They (the grand jurors) don’t understand it.”

Rex Magee, an associate director of the state Department of Food and Agriculture, which would have jurisdiction to halt Alta-Dena’s raw milk sales, declined to comment until he had a chance to read the grand jury report which, he said, would “be reviewed.”

But Dr. Shirley L. Fannin, associate director of Los Angeles County’s communicable disease control unit, hailed the grand jury recommendation. A longtime critic of raw milk consumption, Fannin said that “if it were up to me, I would do it (halt raw milk sales).” She said raw milk sales should either be prohibited or containers of the product should carry a health warning.

Hahn, during the listeriosis epidemic, proposed adoption of a resolution suspending Alta-Dena’s raw milk sales, but the supervisors threw it out. The supervisors, however, approved Hahn’s motion for the grand jury investigation last June 18.

The grand jury also:

- Urged faster and more efficient dissemination of infectious disease information by the county through telephone and follow-up postcard warnings from health officials to retailers and others handling contaminated products. Early on in the epidemic, there was criticism of county health officials that the outbreak had not been dealt with fast enough and that Jalisco products had been left on store shelves too long.

- Called for the consolidation of a single list of diseases that should be reported to county health officials, rather than having separate, and possibly confusing, categories of reportable diseases as currently exist under local laws.

The report also was critical of local hospitals for not quickly reporting the listeriosis outbreak to county health officials as required by law.