Read the full article by Kevin Miller (Portland Press Herald)
“State officials declined to identify the farm, but said Maine’s milk supply remains safe because the farm was sending a relatively small amount of milk to a processor that was blending it with milk from other farms.
Milk from a Central Maine dairy farm contained levels of a harmful ‘forever chemical’ that were 60 to 150 times higher than health standards, triggering a state investigation and raising new concerns about PFAS contamination on farms.
The levels of contamination in the farm’s milk are the highest, by far, documented in Maine for an agricultural setting and, at 32,200 parts per trillion, potentially the highest ever recorded in milk in the country.
In fact, samples collected from the unnamed farm had 23 times as much PFAS – industrial compounds linked to cancer and other health problems – as were found at a York County dairy that drew national attention to the issue of potentially contaminated milk.
‘They were very startling and very concerning for this individual farm, and certainly not something that we were expecting,’ said Nancy McBrady, director of the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry’s Bureau of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources.
Though McBrady and other officials with the department were alarmed by the unprecedented levels, they said consumers were not at risk from the contaminated milk because it was diluted when it was mixed with milk from other farms at the processing plant. The department also said the discovery shows that the state’s periodic testing and supplier-tracing system works.
The department said the farm has stopped selling milk and beef, but it did not identify the farm or the processor in a public statement about the contamination. The Press Herald asked for the name of the farm and processor, but the department said it would not release the information before next week…”