can you eat unpasteurized cheese if it's cooked?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Besides, if you eat lettuce you might as well eat unpasteurized cheese. You are much more likely to get listeria (the alleged concern) from the former than the latter.

This is pretty accurate. I compiled this list last year from a google search for listeria outbreaks -- not a single case of listeria from (legally) unpasteurized dairy:

2011 Colorado Jensen Farms Cantalope
2011 Publix Spinach Dip
2011 Dole Bagged Salad
2010 Texas SanGar Celery
2010 Louisiana Veron Hog Head Cheese and Sausage (head cheese is not cheese, it's meat)
2008 Canada Cold Cuts
2007 Massachusetts Whittier Farms Pasteurized Milk
2002 Pilgrim's Pride Chicken
1998 Canada Abbott Pasteurized Cheese
1998 Chicago? Sara Lee Hot Dogs and Cold Cuts
1985 California Jalisco Pasteurized Cheese (questionable past. process)

And if you go to this CDC database, http://wwwn.cdc.gov/foodborneoutbreaks/Default.aspx and limit the search to listeria, you get a list of mostly deli meat, a few cases of unpasteurized queso fresco (which is currently illegal in the US), and a few misc others.

I also came across this interesting blog post on the FDA's crackdown of raw cheese. http://www.grist.org/food-safety/2011-02-10-what-w...60-day-aging-rule-for-raw-milk
The author found, through a search of the CDC's website, no U.S. illness from raw or pateurized cheese from 1973-1999, and 350 illnesses from raw milk from 2000-2009, and 247 illnesses (including 1 death) from pateurized milk during the same period. (Note this excludes the 1985 CA outbreak and other unpasteurized queso fresco cases because the cheese wasn't legal to begin with.)

Also regarding cheese laws in the US -- federal (not state) law prohibits the transportation of raw milk (and thus cheese) across sate lines when packaged for consumers. Sate law governs the sale of raw milk inside each state's borders, about half allow it in some form. http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm232980.htm

I also found several references to a 60-day federal rule regarding the aging process, after which the cheese is no longer considered to be raw milk, and is thus legal for transport across state lines, but I couldn't actually find this on the FDA's wesite.

Personally, I avoid deli meat and would not eat (illegal) unpasteurized queso fresco if I ever came across it, and avoid any food that doesn't appear to have been handled safely (have to use my own judgment here). I eat all other cheeses and washed produce. And while not a listeria risk specifically, I also ate freshly prepared sushi from reputable restaurants (not buffets, grocery stores, or food courts).