Is there anyway to ruin water kefir and get sick from it?

[milkmamamerina]

I am making it for the first time and I'm pretty excited, but then after reading that they can't even make kefir comercially by using grains, I started to worry. Is there any reason the grains are not allowed commercially? Is there any way to contaminate it or get food poisoning from it? (When obeying common sense food safety, of course.)

I had every intention of making water kefir for my multi-allergy toddler, but now I'm kind of freaked out about it. I got my grains from a friend, but she recently ordered them off the internet...I wouldn't give my daughter some random stranger's breastmilk...so I'm suddenly concerned.

Is making kefir 100% safe? Am I worrying for nothing?

[dogmom327]

Originally Posted by milkmamamerina

I am making it for the first time and I'm pretty excited, but then after reading that they can't even make kefir comercially by using grains, I started to worry. Is there any reason the grains are not allowed commercially? Is there any way to contaminate it or get food poisoning from it? (When obeying common sense food safety, of course.)

I had every intention of making water kefir for my multi-allergy toddler, but now I'm kind of freaked out about it. I got my grains from a friend, but she recently ordered them off the internet...I wouldn't give my daughter some random stranger's breastmilk...so I'm suddenly concerned.

Is making kefir 100% safe? Am I worrying for nothing?

Well nothing is 100% safe

Contamination is really the biggest concern and beyond that it's common sense and good judgment like you said.

From a large commercial standpoint, kefir grains would be fairly cumbersome--it's far easier to have a culture you can buy in large quantities (and can be made in a laboratory) in terms of both large scale production as well as a product that has been thoroughly chemically tested. Kefir grains are a naturally occurring organism and I think that makes a lot of companies nervous--it's not as quantifiable, controllable or convenient. For what it's worth, I have a processing license issued by our state department of agriculture, kefir grains are one of the products we are licensed for and they had no issues with it.