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THE CASE FOR UNTREATED MILK
A SPECIAL REPORT
FROM
THE ASSOCIATION OF UNPASTEURISED
MILK PRODUCERS & CONSUMERS
Originally Published by The Soil Association.
This Paper was written by
DR. B. M. PICKARD
The Department of Animal Physiology and Nutrition The University of Leeds
LEEDS LS2 9JT
Edited originally for The Soil Association
by Sue Stickland and Lawrence Woodward
Introduction Publication for
Sir Julian Rose & Marwood Yeatman
The Association of Unpasteurised Milk Producers and Consumers
Hardwick Estate Office
Whitchurch-on-Thames Reading RG8 7RB
0118 984 2955
hardwickestate@btinternet.com
1
INTRODUCTION
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 our booklet 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 here.
___________________________
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.
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