Change raw milk bottles: Dairy Australia

Dairy Australia is backing calls from health authorities to sell 'bathing' milk in distinctive bottles with more prominent warnings.
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A child has died in Victoria, and four others became ill, after drinking contaminated unpasteurised milk, which isn’t allowed to be sold as drinking milk, but is available as a cosmetic product in a similar shape bottle.

Helen Dornom, from Dairy Australia, says some people choose to ignore warnings about the health risks, but others may be confused.

«So in this case, it is labelled not for human consumption, but you can mount an argument to say that if it looks like the same product that is for human consumption, there could well be some confusion.

«To the extent that we can remove that confusion, we would support that fully.»

Queensland’s chief health officer is calling for a total ban on the sale of unpasteurised milk.

In Queensland, all milk sold for human consumption, except goat’s milk, must be pasteurised – a heating process which kills harmful bacteria.

Dr Jeannette Young, from Queensland Health, says better labelling or childproof bottles simply don’t go far enough.

«I don’t think we should. It is far to easy for people to accidentally mix up unpasteurised milk and pasteurised milk.»

Dr Young says, while unpasteurised milk can legally be sold as ‘bath’ milk, raw goats milk can be sold for human consumption in Queensland and unpasteurised cow’s milk can also be legally sold for human consumption in New Zealand, she thinks the rules should be changed.

«Yes, I think there needs to be because of what has happened in Victoria, because we do know that raw milk contains a whole host of organisms that can be very dangerous, but fortunately we know that pasteurisation kills all those organisms.»

She doesn’t accept that better labelling would work, and she’s concerned it’s sold for ‘cosmetic purposes’.

«If you are going to sell it in a container that looks very similar to a milk bottle, which is how it is sold at farmers’ markets and health food stores, as a cosmetic, it really is difficult to pick that it is not normal milk.

«That’s where I think this has gone wrong in Victoria. Where you have got young children who will go to the fridge and grab a bottle of milk and we want them to drink milk, but they can’t read at that age, they can’t pick it up, so I think it is quite serious.»

Dr Young says while many departments would be involved in a decision to ban the sale of raw milk, she supports the move.

«I would like to make that recommendation, remembering that the decision sits in may portfolios.»

Demand for unpasteurised drinking milk

Despite the risks, there is a market for raw milk.

In South Australia, some farms run ‘cow share’ programs as a way of offering consumers unpasteurised milk.

Milk drinkers buy shares in a cow and pay a dairy business to look after the animals. In return, shareholders can access unpasteurised milk.

Moo View Dairy manager Mark Tyler says there’s strong demand.

«I’ve heard so many testimonies of the health benefits. A large percentage of our population can’t drink pasteurised milk. It’s ridiculous.»

While he admits there’s a health risk, Mr Tyler says people have a long history of drinking raw milk.

The South Australian authorities have been attempting to shut down ‘cow share’ operations, but so far have been unsuccessful.

 
Source: ABC

Mirá También

Así lo expresó Domingo Possetto, secretario de la seccional Rafaela, quien además, afirmó que a los productores «habitualmente los ignoran los gobiernos». Además, reconoció la labor de los empresarios de las firmas locales y aseguró que están «esperanzados» con la negociación entre SanCor y Adecoagro.

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