Even in northern Europe, milk as we know it is a recent phenomenon. Fresh milk, left unrefrigerated, spoils quickly and can harbour a variety of deadly pathogens, including E Coli and tuberculosis. For most of history it was either consumed within moments of milking, or processed as cheese or yoghurt.
Few drunk milk in its liquid form.
“The Romans considered it a sign of barbarism,” said Mark Kurlansky, author of Milk! A 10,000-Year
Food Fracas. “The only people who drank milk were people on farms, because they were the only ones who could get it fresh enough.”
(Even then, cow’s milk was considered inferior to alternatives such as goat or donkey.) In the 19th century, “swill milk” – so called because cows were fed the filthy runoff from inner-city breweries, turning their milk blue – was linked with thousands of infant deaths.
Only in the early 20th century, with the introduction of mandatory pasteurisation – in which milk is heated to kill off any bacteria before bottling – did milk become safe enough for most people to drink regularly.
The long read: How wellness upstarts spoiled milk’s healthy reputation – and built a billion-dollar industry from juicing oats and nuts
www.theguardian.com
