Pasteurization

A heat treatment process that destroys pathogenic microorganisms in foods and beverages, named for the French scientist Louis Pasteur, who demonstrated in the 1860s that abnormal fermentation of wine and beer could be prevented by heating them briefly. Milk is typically pasteurized at 63 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes or 72 degrees Celsius for 15 seconds, times and temperatures set to destroy Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the other most heat resistant disease causing microorganisms found in milk. As a population measure it removed a whole class of milkborne infection: people who consume unpasteurized milk products face a significantly higher risk of brucellosis, salmonellosis, human and bovine tuberculosis, streptococcal infections and diphtheria than those who consume pasteurized products.