Federal Judge Bans Sale of Raw Milk Across State Line

In a ruling that a consumers group said will largely affect the Alta-Dena Dairy in Los Angeles County, a federal judge in Washington has ordered U.S. health officials to ban interstate sales of unpasteurized milk because it is “unsafe for human consumption” and poses “a significant health risk.”

A spokesman for Alta-Dena, however, said Monday that the order by U.S. District Judge Norma Johnson “has nothing to do” with the milk it distributes because “we have never encouraged the taking of raw certified milk out of the state.”

Johnson did not go so far as to grant the request by lawyers for the Public Citizen consumer advocate group for a ban on the sales of certified raw milk within state boundaries. In the order handed down last Wednesday, she said it was up to individual states to decide “on such matters of purely local concern.”

But she apparently left the door open to a future ban on intrastate sales of raw milk by observing that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services may be able to take such a step if it appears the interstate prohibition is ineffective.

Public Citizen attorney Eric Glitzenstein said that Dr. Sidney M. Wolfe, director of the Ralph Nader-formed organization, believes that the Johnson ruling “should make an impression on the California Legislature,” which would have to enact any state ban on raw milk.

Except for a Georgia dairy that produces a comparatively small amount, Glitzenstein said, Alta-Dena is the nation’s last major distributor of unpasteurized milk. According to Wolfe, more than 3,000 people a day drink raw milk shipped across state lines.

Alta-Dena spokesman Paul Virgin said the firm actually discourages the shipping of its Stueve’s Natural Raw Certified Milk to other states because of its relatively short shelf life and the lack of control over distribution.

Wolfe claimed that since 1980 there have been more than 1,000 cases of bacterial diseases caused by raw milk, 20 of which have been fatal. He said 25 states have banned its sale.

Alta-Dena’s Virgin, however, called Wolfe’s figures “totally erroneous and misleading.” He contended that the largest bacterial disease outbreaks in the U.S. have been caused by pasteurized milk.

He said certified raw milk is produced under “the highest standards” and is required to have less bacteria than pasteurized milk.

The federal Food and Drug Administration ordered in 1973 that all milk products shipped across state lines be pasteurized, but the rule was suspended pending further studies. It was proposed by the FDA again in 1985, but rejected by then-Health and Human Services Secretary Margaret Heckler.

Wolfe wrote to Heckler in 1984, urging her to “rise above the obvious Southern California political pressure generated by Alta-Dena. . . . If you really believe in prevention, you will move to ban raw milk sales without further delay.”

Last week, Johnson ruled that “there is no longer any question of fact” that raw milk is unsafe.