Raw Milk Supplies

 

A news item in a recent edition of the Yorkshire Post (3 January 2012) carries the information that people have been queuing to buy unpasteurised milk from a newly-opened dispensing machine at Selfridges in London. The milk is delivered in a stainless steel tank which slots into the machine. Customers can buy a bottle to fill at a cost of £3.50 a litre or £2 for half a litre. The machine comes from Italy, where there are hundreds like it. The idea is also popular in France.

Steve Hook, the Kent farmer who runs the machine sells thousands of pints per week all over the country from his organic herd of Holstein Friesians, through a courier service. The minimum mail-order delivery is six pints for £13.40.

Mr. Hook said: “We started selling raw milk in 2007. We now sell about 1,800 pints to local doorsteps and about 3,000 all around England and Wales and most of Scotland, plus about 1,000 pints, and cream and butter, at four farmers’ markets at the weekend.”  

The Yorkshire Post article, entitled “Expensive raw milk sales put law into question” continues: “The Food Standard Agency commented: ‘The current controls are intended to ensure an appropriate balance between public health protection and consumer choice.'

“The Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency have asked Selfridges for further information on their sale of raw milk and discussions are continuing.

“ 'Pasteurisation kills dangerous bugs such as E.coli, TB and salmonella, that may be present in raw milk. This is why there are strict rules.’

“A Selfridges spokesman said: ‘We have been through all this with the Food Standards Agency already and we are confident we have good answers to their questions.’

“Mr. Hook said: “I think the law is about right. Our milk has to meet certain standards before we can sell it raw. And people are entitled to a choice.’”

See http://www.hookandson.co.uk/index.html  (note lateral thinking on wider issues of food, farming and society, e.g., http://www.hookandson.co.uk/ALLOTMENTS/allotments.html )

The issues surrounding consumption of pasteurised milk are introduced on:  http://www.campaignforrealmilk.co.uk/index.html

Readers familiar with the issues surrounding raw milk will be aware that EU law has restricted sales of raw milk as part of a world-wide campaign to control food supplies by denying customer choice on grounds of ‘health and safety’ being for-your-own-good.