>>938310251 (OP)Listeria killed hundreds of thousands of not over a million people in the United States alone, before it was ever identified as a food borne pathogen. Similarly, from around the time of the Romans all the way till Pasteurization was invented,(because that is the times we have the most complete records for), milk that wasn't going to be consumed VERY SOON after milking, was almost always turned into cheese or cultured butter. Any guess why? Refrigeration either didn't exist, or wasn't commonplace, for most of the history of milk consumption. Raw milk wasn't drank in non-dairying communities, since access to fresh raw milk was not possible, and consumption of raw milk even 1 day old before refrigeration could lead to serious illness. This is how we managed to continue to drink it for thousands of years; dairying communities in Asia would do the same 8,000 years ago, or around 5,500 years ago in the Americas. They were drinking goat and sheep's milk before ever getting to cows.
The point being, if you're consuming cow milk more than around 5-6 hours after it was harvested, you're not doing anything remotely close to what our ancestors would have even considered. They had no concept of preventing spoiling by heating, or cooling, the idea you could prevent spoiling without changing the flavor and texture of a food was nonsense, unless you lived in a very cold climate.
