Raw milk recalled from Modesto-area dairy four times. Owner explains his process
Joe Bento hopes to get back soon to his tiny niche in the dairy industry: selling raw milk directly to consumers.
Four times since 2019, the state has ordered recalls at Valley Milk Simply Bottled, about six miles west of Modesto. Routine testing found excessive levels of bacteria each time, but no illnesses were reported.
Bento talked about the raw milk market, and the recalls, during a visit Thursday, Sept. 23, to the Maze Boulevard business by The Modesto Bee.
That was just a day after the latest recall and quarantine, so everything from that day’s milking went down the drain rather than into plastic jugs.
“We still have all the costs associated with it and no income coming in,” Bento said amid his nearly 200 cows. He also produces smaller amounts of goat and sheep milk, which are under quarantine, too.
Bacteria called Campylobacter jejuni prompted the actions each time by the California Department of Food and Agriculture. It can cause digestive trouble and fever, but most people recover completely, the agency said. Some people have no symptoms.
The first recall was in March 2019 and the second in July 2020, both involving cow milk. The third was about a month ago, for goat milk.
The latest recall was for cow milk in gallon and half-gallon jugs labeled “Valley Milk Simply Bottled Raw Milk” or “Desi Raw Milk.” They have expiration dates from Sept. 26 to Oct. 3 and brown-colored caps. Purchasers should dispose of them at home.
The company has no relation to Valley Milk LLC, which produces powdered milk at a large plant in Turlock.
No pasteurizing at this dairy
Bento, 48, grew up in a Portuguese-American dairy family and launched his raw milk business in 2013. He employs six people in feeding, milking, manure disposal and other farm chores.
Raw producers skip the pasteurizing done to virtually all California milk, but they have to follow other safeguards from the CDFA. This includes sanitizing the milking equipment and other surfaces to keep pathogens from manure and other sources from building up.
Bento said he has brought in experts to test for the bacteria’s origin in the animals’ bodies and their feed and drinking water. It’s still a mystery to him.
Raw milk sales are illegal in 20 states, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mainstream industry groups would like to shrink the niche even more. They point to a CDC finding that raw milk is 840 times more likely to cause food-borne illness than conventional products.
Pasteurization was “one of the great achievements in public health in the 20th century,” said Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of the National Milk Producers Federation. This was in a 2018 news release about a failed attempt in Congress to allow interstate sales of raw milk.
The release also quoted veterinarian Michael Dykes, president and CEO of the International Dairy Foods Association. “Legalizing and regulating the sale of raw milk sends a signal to consumers that drinking unpasteurized milk is safe when, in fact, the opposite is true,” he said.
In praise of the product
Raw milk advocates say it is rich in flavor and nutrients thanks to a lack of pasteurization. That process typically heats the liquid to at least 161 degrees briefly.
Bento said he ensures his milk’s safety by chilling it right after it leaves the cow at 101 degrees. He said the jugs can sit for up to two weeks in a refrigerator without spoiling.
Bento sells some of his product to people dropping by the farm. Some is sold at “meet-ups” arranged online in the Bay Area and Sacramento region. Some goes to specialty stores under the Desi label, run by Desiree Lopez of Stockton.
A gallon of Bento’s cow milk costs $10, nearly three times the price of a gallon of some brands’ pasteurized milk on the conventional market. His other milk types come in half-gallons: $5 for goat and $10 for sheep.
Bento produces about 600 gallons of cow milk per day, and much smaller amounts of goat and sheep milk. The animals can’t shut off their udders when the state imposes a quarantine, so the milk goes into the farm’s waste disposal system for now.
Bento differs from industry norms in other ways. He does not feed corn to his cattle, which he said adds to the milk’s acidity. His cows eat alfalfa, barley, cottonseed and canola.
And the milk is not homogenized, a standard process that breaks up the fat globules. The cream instead rises to the top, helpful to customers who make cheese or butter at home.
Kim Mack of Sacramento teaches food preparation through a business called Scratch Made Life. She swears by Bento’s raw milk for making cheese.
“Reason is he cares,” Mack said in an email. “He cares about his livestock, he cares about his product, and he cares about his customers. It is really that simple.”
Drinking it for 8,000 years
Desiree Lopez runs the Desi Raw Milk label while also working as a certified nutritional therapy practitioner. In an email, she said she would like to help expand the volume so the price comes down for consumers.
Lopez said humans have been drinking raw milk for at least 8,000 years, with little trouble. Widespread illness and deaths happened only when adulterated milk was sold in New York and other crowded cities in the 1800s, she said.
“What we are taught in school about raw milk is a one-sided interpretation that raw milk is inherently dangerous and that pasteurization was this magical cure,” Lopez said. “Well, in that case, it wouldn’t have been safely enjoyed for thousands of years.”
California has four other raw milk dairies, said Steve Lyle, director of public affairs at CDFA. They are Claravale Farm in San Benito County, Duivenvoorden Dairy in Shasta County, Organic Pastures Dairy in Fresno County, and Schoch Family Farmstead near Salinas.
The dairy business in general can be stressful because of the high labor demands and a mismatch at times between costs and income. A recall and quarantine just add to this, but Bento is unfazed.
“Even though we’re going through stuff like this, I still enjoy it,” he said.
This story was originally published September 27, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
