This article is from page 21 of the 2011-08-30 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 21 JPG
A PROPOSAL from the Food Safety Authority to ban the sale of all unpasteurised milk will not effect plans by North Clare farmers to sell milk directly to the consumers. New Quay farmers Brid and Roger Fahy had planned to develop a number of milk dispensers in shops around the North Clare area where people could bring their own reusable containers and buy milk directly from the farmers.
The Fahys, who also own the Linnalla home made ice-cream company, have put the project on hold for the moment because of the recession but do plan to return to the direct sales model in the coming years.
According to Brid Fahy, the proposal put forward by the Food Safety Authority, while unusual, will not hurt their own business.
“The Food Safety Authority seem to want to ban it [the sale of all uspasteurised milk] even though it is something that is on sale commonly in many other countries all over Europe. It does seem to be a strange one but honestly there is very little unpasteurised milk out there,” she said. “I think that it’s is a case of somebody making a job for themselves – there are so few people producing milk which is unpasteurised at the moment. I really don’t think this will make a huge difference for people.
“We haven’t started up the milk vending machines yet but we had planned to put pasteurised milk into that and not unpasteurised. The only difference between our milk and milk that you would buy in a shop is that our milk would not be homogenised – which is something that many people would see as having a lot of health benefits.
“We haven’t been able to go ahead with that plan yet – we have been concentrating on getting the ice-cream business on a firmer footing but milk vending machines are something that we would intend to do in the future.
“Most of the people who want unpasteurised milk really want it because they want unhomogenised milk. In homogenised milk the cream on top or fat cells have become mixed with the milk so that you can’t take the milk without the cream.
“There is a wave against homogenised milk because it is believed that the broken down fat cells can go straight into the blood stream and in that way cause more damage to the body.”