Most milk drug-free

There’s little evidence of antibiotics in milk, a recently released Food and Drug Administration study on nearly 2,000 dairy farms concludes.

In recent years, concerns from public health groups have mounted regarding the levels of animal antibiotics that make it into food, as consuming those drugs could have unintended consequences for humans. For instance, repeated exposure to antibiotics can make germs resistant to the drugs, making them less effective when someone gets sick.

Health advocates had expressed specific concerns about milk coming from dairy farms that had tried to sell older cows for slaughter that had illegal levels of antibiotics in their systems, according to The Associated Press. In response, starting in 2012 the FDA focused on farms with previous violations, along with a control group, testing samples of raw milk for 31 drugs.

The results, released on March 5 after two years of analyzing the samples, showed that less than 1 percent contained illegal drug residue.