Despite increasing calls for more food safety protection, a growing number of states are allowing the sale of raw milk for human consumption. IDFA Vice President Allen Sayler will discuss the dangers of raw milk at an upcoming symposium that will bring together a cross-section of leaders in food safety to consider raw milk as an emerging public health threat.

"The increased state legalization of the sale of raw milk to consumers for direct human consumption has resulted in more and more reported illnesses and deaths," Sayler reported to the Milk Industry Foundation board last fall. "The Centers for Disease Control identified 45 outbreaks of foodborne illness that implicated raw milk or cheese made from raw milk between 1998 and 2005, which accounted for 1,007 illnesses, 104 hospitalizations and 2 deaths."

Currently, almost 30 U.S. states allow the sale of raw milk to consumers, and there are organized efforts to ease restrictive regulations in a growing number of states.

The symposium on "Raw Milk Consumption: An Emerging Public Health Threat?" will be held February 17 in Arlington, Va. It is sponsored by the International Association for Food Protection, a non-profit association of food safety professionals who work in all areas of food protection in industry, government and academia.

For more information or to register, visit www.foodprotection.org/meetingsEducation/TimelyTopics09.asp or contact Sayler at asayler@idfa.org or 202-220-3544.