Mick Kir, owner of Upper Gully Organics shop and his shop manager Jenni Duncan with some bottles of Mountain View Organic Dairy Bath Milk which he sells at his shop. Photo: Eddie Jim
The state government has called for a federal investigation into labelling of unpasteurised milk and a possible ban on its sale following the death of a Melbourne toddler.
Consumer Affairs Minister Jane Garrett said she had urgently raised the issue with her federal counterpart Bruce Billson and asked him to investigate whether the product could be banned, including for sale as cosmetic or “bath milk”.
Other options being considered included tightening labelling requirements and recalling the milk.
Mountain View Organic Dairy Bath Milk. Photo: Eddie Jim
Her call follows a warning by Victoria’s Chief Health Officer, Rosemary Lester, against drinking unpasteurised cow’s milk, after a three-year-old died and another four young children became seriously ill.
A health food shop owner who sells the raw milk linked to the death of the Melbourne toddler said it was common knowledge that customers purchased it to drink, even though it is labelled for cosmetic use only.
The high-volume seller told Fairfax Media that while distributors were at pains to tell new customers the product was not fit for human consumption, “most if not all” people bought the milk to drink.
“When we start explaining to regular customers that it’s not to be taken they start rolling their eyes at us, but anyone that’s new we certainly make sure we tell them,” Upper Gully Organics’ owner Mick Kir said.
“No one’s admitted to [bathing in] it. Everyone has a bit of a laugh about that.”
Mr Kir sells more than 200 litres of raw milk from his Ferntree Gully shop each week and said he had never heard of a customer suffering a bad reaction.
Mr Kir, who also drinks the milk as part of his treatment regime for prostate cancer, mostly stocks raw milk from Gippsland’s Mountain View Farm.
The farm’s owner, Vicki Jones, said the Health Department told her three of the five children affected had consumed Mountain View Organic milk.
She said each batch had passed quality audits, and that ongoing testing by authorities had so far cleared the it for e-coli, salmonella, lysteria, campylobactor.
The three-year-old child who died developed Haemolytic Uraemic Syndrome, a rare bacterial illness that leads to kidney failure. The death is being investigated by the coroner.
The other four children aged between one and five became seriously ill in recent weeks following infections linked to the milk, but have since recovered. Three of the children had Haemolytic Uraemic Syndrome and two others had cryptosporidiosis, a parasitic infection that commonly presents as gastroenteritis with watery diarrhoea.
Dr Lester said raw milk could contain dangerous bacteria and parasites and posed a heightened risk for young children, the elderly, pregnant women and people with underlying health problems.
Farm owner Ms Jones said she was aware that some people consumed the raw milk, but that the label clearly states its purpose as a cosmetic product.
“If people are consuming a product that is clearly labelled, then as a producer it’s out of my hands,” she said. “People are obviously demanding this product.”
Raw milk cannot be legally sold for consumption in Australia, but Dr Lester said some people were “clearly buying it knowingly to drink”, believing it was more wholesome than pasteurised milk. She said it was impossible to sterilise milk without pasteurisation, which involves heating the milk for a short time to kill harmful bacteria.
Dr Lester said she was concerned that raw milk was being sold alongside other drinks in health food stores and packaged in a similar way to pasteurised milk, but that she was unaware of any breaches of food regulations because the milk was not technically being sold as a food.
Ms Garrett said she had directed the state’s consumer watchdog to start an education campaign alerting consumers and parents to the dangers of unpasteurised milk, with information distributed through maternal and health care centres, hospitals, day care centres.
“Make no mistake, unpasteurised milk can kill, no matter how carefully it has been produced. It should not be fed to children,” Ms Garrett said.
Consumer Affairs Victoria confirmed it was working with the ACCC to assess whether any consumer laws were being breached in the marketing of unpasturised milk. Director Claire Noone warned consumers not to drink any raw or unpasturised milk, no matter how carefully it had been produced.
With Marissa Calligeros