ABSTRACT
Milk, a highly nutritious food ideally suited for growth of both pathogenic and spoilage organisms, is the basis for an extremely large industry in the United States. In 1999, more than 162 billion lb of milk were produced by 9.15 million dairy cows, with total sales exceeding $23 billion (Anonymous, 2000). Even though dairy products are consumed daily by most individuals in the United States, milk, ice cream, and cheese are still among the safest foods marketed and have most recently accounted for less than 1.5% of all foodborne illness cases reported annually (Bean et aI., 1996). Dairy products manufactured in the United States continue to be safer than those produced in many other countries with 2, 4,6, and 8% of all foodborne outbreaks in France, Spain, Scotland, and Germany, respectively, traced to milk products during 1987 (Notermans and HoogenboomVerdegaal, 1992). However, two outbreaks in 1985-the first involving up to 85 deaths in southern California from Listeria-contaminated cheese and the second in the Chicago area in which more than 16,000 cases of salmonellosis were traced to one particular brand of pasteurized milk-reaffirms the need for continued vigilance by the dairy industry to safeguard public health.
