"The Case of Untreated Milk"

A Special Report from 'The Association of Unpasteurised Milk Producers & Consumers'.

It is already illegal to sell unpasteurised milk through shops, catering establishments, hotels, hospitals and schools in England and Wales. In 1989, for political and financial reasons, the government went for a total ban to fall in line with Scotland. The attempt failed, owing mainly to consumer pressure. However, on November 4th of this year (1997) the government announced its renewed intention to ban unpasteurised milk on the grounds that it presents a health hazard.

There is no evidence for this. As this article explains, unpasteurised milk has special qualities that are destroyed by pasteurisation. The fight to save 'Green Top' is symbolic. It is a whole, living food whose demise would signal a new level of impoverishment for all of us who treasure real food with real flavour.It would also sound the death knell for the five hundred or so small farmers who still produce Real Milk. The last of their number has already been killed off by corporate interests in the USA and Canada. Do not let it happen.

The supposed aim of pasteurisation of milk is to prevent risks to public health. Yet this ignores the many benefits of untreated milk and the damaging effects of heat treatment; these are outlined below. The question is whether these effects are outweighed by the one advantage of pasteurisation, the destruction of disease bacteria. An evaluation of the infections caused by milk is presented here, in an attempt to show that pasteurisation is not the universal solution that it may first appear to be.