For the second time in six months, New York agriculture officials are warning consumers in Sullivan County and the surrounding area not to consume unpasteurized raw farm milk from the Richard Dirie Farm due to possible Listeria contamination.
A sample of the milk, collected by an inspector from the department’s Division of Milk Control and Dairy Services on April 7, 2015 was subsequently tested by the Department’s Food Laboratory and discovered to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.
On April 9, 2015, the producer was notified of a preliminary positive test result. He volunteered to suspend raw milk sales until the sample results were confirmed. Further laboratory testing, completed on April 15, 2015, confirmed the presence of Listeria monocytogenes in the raw milk sample. The producer is now prohibited from selling raw milk until subsequent sampling indicates that the product is free of harmful bacteria.
The Dirie Farm is located at 1345 Shandelee Road, Livingston Manor, New York. To date, no illnesses are known by the Department to be associated with this product.
Listeria monocytogenes is an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, cancer patients, elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. People who are otherwise healthy may suffer only short-term, flu-like symptoms such as high fever, severe headaches, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain, and diarrhea, Listeria can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.
Why do our state (and federal for that matter) food agencies, who constantly push severe and strict food safety and security regulations on legitimate businesses allow the sale of raw milk to the consuming public from dairy farms? Dairy farms are not clean places, they inherently have manure, rodents, insects, urine and other barn animals roaming around, everywhere. Milk can easily be contaminated. Food processing and sales should not be done from the barn. If a dairy farmer wants to sell milk, they should buy a pasteurizer, put in a clean processing room, and take off their manure shoes!