Unpasteurized means a food or drink has not been heat-treated to kill harmful bacteria. Pasteurization typically heats a liquid to around 72°C (161°F) for 15 seconds, which is enough to destroy most dangerous pathogens while keeping the product’s taste and nutrition largely intact. When something is labeled unpasteurized, or “raw,” it has skipped that step entirely. The term comes up most often with milk, juice, cider, cheese, and honey.
How Pasteurization Works
The standard method, called high-temperature short-time (HTST) pasteurization, holds a liquid at about 72°C for 15 seconds. A slower alternative heats it to a lower temperature, around 63°C, for 30 minutes. Both are designed to kill bacteria like Salmonella, E. coli, Listeria, and Campylobacter without fundamentally changing the food.
The nutritional losses from this process are small. Vitamin C drops by roughly 5 to 17 percent depending on the product. Protein digestibility stays essentially the same: about 80% whether milk is raw or pasteurized. Key immune proteins like lactoferrin retain 97 to 99% of their activity after standard pasteurization, and minerals like calcium, zinc, and selenium are unaffected. Folate dips slightly, from about 8 micrograms per 100 grams to 6.4. These are minor trade-offs relative to the safety gains.
Why People Choose Unpasteurized Products
Supporters of raw milk and other unpasteurized foods often believe they’re more nutritious, easier to digest, or better for the immune system. The most common claim is that raw milk helps people with lactose intolerance. A randomized controlled trial published in the Annals of Family Medicine tested this directly. Adults with confirmed lactose malabsorption drank raw milk, pasteurized milk, and soy milk over multiple sessions. The result: symptom severity was identical for raw and pasteurized milk, and objective measures of lactose digestion showed no benefit from raw milk. The study concluded there is no evidence supporting the widespread claim that raw milk is easier on lactose-intolerant stomachs.
Other people seek out unpasteurized products for flavor. Raw milk cheeses, for instance, can develop more complex taste profiles during aging. And raw honey retains enzymes like glucose oxidase and lysozyme that contribute to its natural antibacterial properties. Heating honey above 45°C can degrade those enzymes, which is why raw honey is marketed as a more “active” product. For honey, the safety calculus is different than for milk: honey’s high sugar concentration and acidic pH make it inhospitable to most bacteria on its own.
The Bacterial Risks
Unpasteurized dairy carries real and measurable risks. Raw milk can harbor Salmonella, E. coli (including the dangerous O157:H7 strain), Listeria, and Campylobacter. These bacteria cause vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever, headache, and body aches. In serious cases, particularly with E. coli, the infection can lead to kidney failure.
The numbers put the risk in perspective. Only about 3.2% of the U.S. population drinks unpasteurized milk, and only 1.6% eats unpasteurized cheese. Yet those products account for 96% of all illnesses caused by contaminated dairy. According to CDC data from 2009 to 2014, dairy-related outbreaks caused an average of 760 illnesses and 22 hospitalizations per year in the United States, with Salmonella as the leading culprit. Per serving, unpasteurized dairy causes roughly 840 times more illnesses and 45 times more hospitalizations than pasteurized products.
Pregnant women face an especially serious threat from Listeria, which can cause miscarriage, stillbirth, or life-threatening infection in newborns. Young children, older adults, and anyone with a weakened immune system are also at higher risk of severe complications from the same pathogens.
Unpasteurized Juice and Cider
Milk gets the most attention, but unpasteurized apple cider and fruit juices carry similar bacterial risks. Fresh-pressed cider made from apples that contacted contaminated soil, for example, has been linked to E. coli outbreaks. The FDA requires any juice sold at retail that hasn’t been treated to reduce pathogens by a factor of 100,000 (a “5-log reduction”) to carry a warning label alerting consumers that the product may contain harmful bacteria. You’ll typically see this label on fresh cider at farmers’ markets or small producers.
The 60-Day Rule for Cheese
Cheese made from unpasteurized milk is legal in the United States, but it must be aged for at least 60 days at a temperature no lower than 35°F. The idea behind this rule is that the aging process, combined with salt content, acidity, and low moisture, creates conditions that are hostile to dangerous bacteria over time. This is why aged raw-milk cheeses like cheddar, Gruyère, and Parmesan are widely available, while fresh soft cheeses made from raw milk (like queso fresco) pose a greater risk and are more commonly implicated in outbreaks.
Legal Status in the United States
Federal law prohibits selling unpasteurized milk across state lines. Within state borders, the rules vary widely. Some states ban all sales of raw milk to consumers. Others allow it only at the farm where the milk was produced. A growing number of states permit “herdshare” or “cowshare” arrangements, where consumers buy a share of a cow and receive raw milk as partial owners rather than purchasers. A smaller number of states allow raw milk to be sold in retail stores. The legal landscape has been shifting, with more states loosening restrictions in recent years.
Raw Honey Is a Different Case
Unlike dairy and juice, raw honey has natural built-in defenses against bacterial growth. Its extremely high sugar concentration creates osmotic pressure that dehydrates bacteria, and its acidic pH further discourages microbial life. Enzymes naturally present in raw honey, particularly glucose oxidase, produce small amounts of hydrogen peroxide that give honey antibacterial and antifungal properties. Lysozyme, another enzyme in raw honey, can break down the cell walls of certain bacteria.
Pasteurizing honey (heating it above 45°C) degrades these enzymes and can alter its flavor and aroma. Because honey is already microbiologically stable, the safety argument for pasteurizing it is weaker than for milk or juice. The one exception: honey of any kind should not be given to infants under one year old, because it can contain spores that cause infant botulism, and neither pasteurization nor the honey’s own defenses reliably eliminate that specific risk.