Iodine Levels In Dairy Products

[squirmingitch]

I thought I would post these links pertaining to iodine levels in dairy products since there is so much discussion about the subject & so many of us are dealing with having to lower our iodine intake to make the dh calm down.

First, I will say that different methods are used by different dairy farmers to disinfect the teats of the cows both before milking & after milking. This is done not so much for our safety as for the cows. If not properly disinfected, the cows can get mastitis which in a nutshell is an infection of the teat & can lead to big problems for the poor cow. The most common 2 methods are dipping & spraying. Dipping is where the teat is dipped in a cup of iodine solution & then that is supposed to be rinsed off & dried. Spraying is where the teat is sprayed with an iodine solution. Most commercial dairy producers use one of these 2 methods. SOME don't but those are the minority. Do not think that if you buy "organic" milk that iodine is not used. I called several which stated "organic" on the milk & they said they use the iodine solutions.

I did find one dairy farm near me (I'm LUCKY!!!!!!) who does not use the iodine pre milking (they use a different cleaning method) but they use an iodine wash post milking. They grow their own feed so there is not iodine in the food the cows eat. I will have to do a challenge on their milk & cheese products but the iodine content in their milk HAS to be much lower than anything I can buy in the grocery stores here.

Here are some links:

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

And here's an article describing the disinfection processes as well as graphics showing how it's done.

Open Original Shared Link

Edited to add the last link.

[Di2011]

thanks for the info squirmingitch

I also read somewhere that the soil (and consequently grass/feed) iodine content can influence the iodine content of dairy

[squirmingitch]

I read that also Diane.

[ciamarie]

Thanks for sharing, that's very useful info.

[squirmingitch]

YVW. It still leaves a lot of questions but it answers a lot too.

My thinking is this:

We are getting a LOT more iodine daily than we think. The US recommended daily minimum for iodine is 150 mcg. If you take even the lowest figures for 1-8 oz. glass of milk & add cheese, yogurt, butter, PLUS the iodine naturally occurring in food, even if they aren't the "high" iodine foods & add all that up we could easily surpass DAILY the recommended MAXIMUM daily amount.

This should also help those people who think we shouldn't go on a low iodine diet to understand the massive quantities that we actually ARE getting each day when we aren't following a low iodine diet. It would be darn hard to get less than the minimum RDA daily.

[GFinDC]

Yep, it is standard practice to wash them with iodine. Never even crossed my mind that it would get in the milk but makes perfect sense.

Now the other thing to think about is the transport to the dairy plant. Drivers go around many farms and pick up the milk from each farm in a tanker truck. Then they drop it off at a plant to be processed. So the milk from many different farms is mixed together in one tanker truck. So unless the farm has it's own separate transport and processing for the milk, it could still get mixed with iodine containing milk from other farms.

I rode a milk truck with my cousin as a kid and we did the runs all night along. Farm to farm to farm to plant. Usually got done around daybreak.

[eatmeat4good]

It's true. My grandfather had milk cows and we kids washed the udders with iodine. The milk went to a big tank and then the milk truck picked it up like GFinDC said. Hey Squirming? Can you send me some milk in the mail? Please? Prolly be yogurt by the time I get it though.

[squirmingitch]

LOL! Eatmeat.

Good point GFinDC & eatmeat. Thankfully this dairy near me does their own bottling (should we call it plasticing?) right there on their farm & they pasteurize b/c it's required by law but do not homogenize so the fat is floating on the top & I have to shake it every time I go to use it. They even deliver it in their own delivery trucks. It's sold at the fresh fruit & veggie market just up the road from us here.