People like Erling Haaland are embracing the raw milk trend – but is it genuinely helpful or a risky fad?
The Manchester City striker has been photographed many times drinking or holding litres of milk, including raw milk that has not been pasteurised.
However, not everyone is raising a glass in celebration.
Dairy Editor with the Irish Farmers Journal, Aidan Brennan, told Moncrieff milk “no doubt” helps people like Mr Haaland keep fit.
“But whether or not he's getting any gain out of raw milk is less certain,” he said.
“The science would say that there's probably no real difference in terms of the nutritional status of milk that's pasteurised versus raw milk.”
Mr Brennan explained unpasteurised milk contains more bacteria than processed milk, which could actually help someone like Mr Haaland.
“Perhaps then that's giving the likes of him and who's obviously at the top of his game, a young, fit, healthy man, [it’s] strengthening his immune system,” he said.
“But if you were sick or young or very old or a pregnant woman, for example, your immune system might need to cater for all the bacteria that's coming at you through the milk.
“That's the risk factor there associated with raw milk that you don't have a pasteurised milk.”
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The dairy expert explained pasteurised milk was invented to help people avoid illness.
“People were dying from listeria, salmonella, TB, brucellosis, E. coli, and a range of other bacteria and germs that were present in milk,” he said.
“From a human health point of view, definitely you say pasteurised milk is safer.
“But then again, I grew up drinking unpasteurised milk on the farm at home in Tipperary.”
People who sell raw milk have to undergo further inspections and health checks before they can enter the market, according to Mr Brennan.
“But, you know, a batch could go astray,” he said. “We've had incidents in the past whereby people got sick from, seriously sick, from drinking milk that was infected with TB.”
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland recommends that raw milk be banned for human consumption.
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