1893 – Dr. Henry L. Coit Forms the Medical Milk Commission to Certify Raw Milk

In the mid-to-late 1800s milk-born illness was a major problem.

Milk produced at unhygienic production facilities (like distillery dairies) served as a medium to spread diseases like typhoid and tuberculosis. These diseases created a public health crisis that led to skyrocketing infant mortality in the cities.

As a result, “[i]n 1889, two years before the death of his son from contaminated milk, Newark, New Jersey doctor Henry Coit, MD urged the creation of a Medical Milk Commission to oversee or ‘certify’ production of milk for cleanliness, finally getting one formed in 1893.”