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BACKGROUND: Several studies demonstrated the adverse effect of milk processing on the allergy-protective capacity of raw cow's milk. Whether milk processing also affects the allergenicity of raw milk is hardly investigated. OBJECTIVE: To assess the allergenicity of raw (unprocessed) and processed cow's milk in a murine model for food allergy as well as in cow's milk allergic children. METHODS: C3H/HeOuJ mice were either sensitized to whole milk (raw cow's milk, heated raw cow's milk or shop milk [store-bought milk]) and challenged with cow's milk protein or they were sensitized and challenged to whey proteins (native or heated). Acute allergic symptoms, mast cell degranulation, allergen-specific IgE levels and cytokine concentrations were determined upon challenge. Cow's milk allergic children were tested in an oral provocation pilot with organic raw and conventional shop milk. RESULTS: Mice sensitized to raw milk showed fewer acute allergic symptoms upon intradermal challenge than mice sensitized to processed milk. The acute allergic skin response was low (103 ± 8.5 µm vs 195 ± 17.7 µm for heated raw milk, P < 0.0001 and vs 149 ± 13.6 µm for shop milk, P = 0.0316), and there were no anaphylactic shock symptoms and no anaphylactic shock-induced drop in body temperature. Moreover, allergen-specific IgE levels and Th2 cytokines were significantly lower in raw milk sensitized mice. Interestingly, the reduced sensitizing capacity was preserved in the isolated native whey protein fraction of raw milk. Besides, native whey protein challenge diminished allergic symptoms in mice sensitized to heated whey proteins. In an oral provocation pilot, cow's milk allergic children tolerated raw milk up to 50 mL, whereas they only tolerated 8.6 ± 5.3 mL shop milk (P = 0.0078). CONCLUSION AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: This study demonstrates that raw (unprocessed) cow's milk and native whey proteins have a lower allergenicity than their processed counterparts. The preclinical evidence in combination with the human proof-of-concept provocation pilot provides evidence that milk processing negatively influences the allergenicity of milk.

Stoffeinträge aus der Landwirtschaft in das Grund- und Oberflächenwasser stellen ein hohes Umweltrisiko dar. In einer systematischen Literaturübersicht wurden ökologische und konventionelle Landwirtschaft hinsichtlich der jeweiligen Belastungen des Grund- und Oberflächenwassers im Vergleich untersucht. Insgesamt wurden 96 Vergleichsstudien mit 308 Vergleichpaaren evaluiert. 63% der Vergleichpaare zeigen Vorteile des ökologischen Landbaus in Bezug auf Nitratausträge, genauso 90% der Vergleichspaare in Bezug auf Pestizidbelastungen. Im Schnitt (Median) können unter ökologischer Bewirtsvchaftung 28% weniger Nitratauswaschungen festgestellt werden als in der konventionellen Landwirtschaft, zudem werden keine Pestizide und vermutlich auch weniger Tierarzneimittel in das Grund- und Oberflächenwasser ausgewaschen. Hinsichtlich des Austrags von Phosphor ist die Datenlage unklar. Das System der ökologischen Landwirtschaft zeigt ein hohes Potential im Schutz von Grund- und Oberflächenwasser.

Obwohl die Umweltauswirkungen des ökologischen Landbaus wissenschaftlich und politisch allgemein anerkannt sind, gibt es immer noch unterschiedliche Ansichten, wie der Beitrag des ökologischen Landbaus zur Lösung der Umwelt- und Ressourcenprobleme unserer Zeit bewertet werden kann. Dieser Beitrag beschreibt Hintergrund und Inhalt dieser Debatte und beschreibt den Ansatz zur Analyse des aktuellen Forschungsstandes.

Consumers buy organic food because they believe in the high quality of the product. Furthermore, the EU legal regulatory framework for organic food and farming defines high quality of the products as an important goal of production. A major challenge is the need to define food quality concepts andmethods for determination. A background is described which allows embedding of the quality definitions as well as evaluation methods into a conceptual framework connected to the vision and mission of organic agriculture and food production. Organic food quality is defined through specific aspects and criteria. For evaluation each criterion has to be described by indicators. The determination of indicators should be through parameters, where parameters are described by methods. Conversely, the conceptual framework is described according to underlying principles and starting definitions are given, but further work has do be done on the detailed scientific description of the indicators. Furthermore, parameters have to be defined for the evaluation of suitability of these indicators for organic food production. (c) 2012 Society of Chemical Industry

Milk as one of the most important nutritional sources has also become one of the major food allergens. What are the reasons for differences of milk from organic and conventional origin? The ongoing research shows a high impact of management practices on milk quality and composition. Which quality characteristic marks consis-tently organic milk quality and how could quality be optimized? The planned transdis-ciplinary and participative project combines analytical and holistic methods to assess organic milk quality and to evaluate the impact on human health.