The grossest, weirdest, and most dangerous things ever found in milk
Love it or hate it, milk has played a huge part in human history. Sometimes for good. And sometimes for ill. Let’s talk about some of the grossest, weirdest, and most dangerous things ever found in milk!
Melamine milk
In 2008, 300,000 children in China were sickened by milk, formula, and other milk products tainted with melamine. At least 6 children died, and tens of thousands were hospitalized with kidney stones or renal failure. These products were also sold in 47 countries worldwide.
What is melamine? It’s essentially a key ingredient in certain types of plastic, glues, and some dishes and kitchenware.
Why add it to milk? Melamine is high in nitrogen and this can trick protein analyses into thinking the milk is higher in protein than it really is. It has no nutritional value.
Swill milk
Marketed as “Pure Country Milk”, swill milk was neither pure nor from the country. Instead, this milk came from cows raised in tight-backed sheds in the middle of many northeastern cities.
What is swill? Swill was a byproduct of alcohol manufacture. The cows hated it and would refuse to eat it until they were almost starving. And even when they did eat it, it made them sick and weak.
Why feed it to cows? Despite making the cows sick, swill increased their milk production by 5 to 25 times! Unfortunately, this milk was thin and gross and kind of blue colored.
What got added to the milk? To solve the problem of thin, gross, bluish milk, swill milk sellers added all kinds of thickeners and whiteners to their milk, including chalk, eggs, flour, water, and plaster-of-Paris. Needless to say, this made kids very very sick.
It’s estimated that as many as 8,000 children died each year from drinking swill milk.
Raw milk
I know some people are super hype about raw milk these days, but unless you’ve got your own beloved cow that you care for diligently and milk daily (and sometimes even if you do!), it’s very likely that there are gross or dangerous things in your raw milk.
What’s in raw milk? Bacteria like Campylobacter, Cryptosporidium, E. coli, Listeria, Brucella, and Salmonella. Recently, they’ve also found bird flu (H5N1) in raw milk produced by infected cows.
Where does the contamination come from? Most of the infectious matter in milk comes from the cows themselves, including from cow fecal matter that can get into the milk if there is poor farm hygiene. Dairy cows can also get infections on their udders, and these infections can shed bacteria or viruses directly into the milk.
Why should you care? Bacterial contamination of milk can give you bloody diarrhea and vomiting, even if you’re super healthy. And for young children, older adults, pregnant women, and people with weakened immune systems, contamination can lead to severe illness, hospitalization, miscarriage, and death.
Rocket fuel milk
There have been lots of chemical contaminants found in milk, including pesticides, heavy metals, antibiotics, and excess hormones. These contaminants can come from contaminated water or feed that the cows consume, medications given to the cows, and from chemicals sprayed onto their skin to treat parasites or infestations.
But the weirdest chemical contaminant I’ve heard of is rocket fuel!
Where did the rocket fuel come from? The US Air Force polluted water supplies in New Mexico and California (and maybe other places, but these were the 2 records I’ve found so far!). So the rocket fuel got into the water supply. And then into the cows. And then into the milk. Eww!
Frog milk
According to historical records, or maybe just old wives’ tales, in parts of Russia and Finland, people used to add frogs to their milk to keep it from spoiling. And it turns out that maybe this wasn’t such a wacky idea.
Why add a frog to milk? Apparently the Russian brown frog releases antibiotic compounds from it’s skin. So it might have actually worked to keep milk fresh. And before refrigeration was invented, keeping milk fresh was a big issue.
But even it if works, frogs in milk still seems gross to me!
Harry Houdini… milk?
My number one weirdest thing ever found in milk is Harry Houdini!
Okay, he wasn’t actually in milk but he did get sealed in a milk can filled with water (or sometimes beer!) and perform the Milk Can Escape — his first water-based escape trick.
What other weird, gross, or dangerous things in milk have I missed? Share in the comments!