Contradictions continue to grate raw milk legislation

Perhaps T.S Eliot said it best when he declared 'never commit yourself to a cheese without having first examined it.' Our food regulators have taken this mantra to heart.

In June this year, a ban was lifted on unpasteurised (raw) milk in 'hard to very hard', curd –cooked, low moisture cheese. See (comlaw).

This is the first outcome from a Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) review into raw milk that commenced back in 2009, and it's left many people in the artisan cheese and specialist dairy sector feeling like they got a raw deal.

All other raw milk products will remain outlawed, with the exception of a few European cheeses. The soft, blue Roquefort from France, the semi-hard Swiss Gruyere and Emmental and the hard Italian Parmigiano Reggiano are exempt from import restrictions ­– much to the relief of Australia's cheese aficionados.

The problem for artisanal cheese makers is they cannot compete with cheese being imported from Europe because it remains illegal to produce an equivalent semi-hard to soft raw milk cheese in their own country.

That is, unless you are in New Zealand.

The Food Standards Australia New Zealand Act 1991 is a paradox because New Zealand can choose to opt out.

This doesn't mean that New Zealand opts out in any of the lawmaking process for Australia. The Kiwis played a role in helping FSANZ maintain the status quo ban on most raw milk products while continuing to allow raw milk sale and consumption on their own shores.

In May 2012, a dairy farmer made headlines by importing New Zealand's first raw milk vending machine to dispense fresh, unprocessed milk from the farm gate.

The New Zealand 1981 Food Actstipulates that farmers can sell raw milk 'from the gate', provided they limit the sale to 5 litres per person per day.

And not surprisingly, New Zealand recognises all European raw milk cheeses. Bizarrely, Australia and New Zealand share the same micro-flora standards (one wonders how New Zealand soft raw milk cheese imports pass the e. coli test).

New Zealand government and industry representatives were members of the FSANZ Standard Development Committee for Raw Milk Products ­­– the parent body for the review, which submits its proposal to the FSANZ Board – where New Zealanders are, again, part of the decision making process.

The Board signs off on the agreed proposal which is sent to the Legislative and Governance Forum on Food Regulation, where along with Australian national, state and territory representatives, the New Zealand Minister for Food Safety has the final say before the proposal is gazetted into Australian law.

The duplicity in New Zealand helping FSANZ to ban most raw milk consumption in Australia while it's own citizens legally and safely are consuming it calls for question.

And raw milk seriously is an illicit substance. The state's interpretation of FSANZ's legislative standards translates into fines up to $53,000 for selling the stuff in Australia.

That is unless the raw milk is from a goat. Raw goat's milk licenses are available in Queensland, NSW, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia. Raw cow's milk can also be sold as 'bath milk' or 'beauty milk' if labelled 'not for human consumption'.

The legal landscape for raw milk in Australia is full of contradictions.

So is the set up behind FSANZ's raw milk decisions.

The FSANZ industry wing of the Standard Development Committee (SDC) for raw milk was overwhelmingly represented by corporate dairy ­­– whose scope of business is well outside the specialised sector that raw milk legislation affects.

Parmalat Australia Ltd, Murray Goulburn Co-opand Fonterra sat on the committee, as did Dairy Australia and Dairy Farmers Australia who are instruments of the large producers. A representative from the Australian goat industry and a New Zealand cheese educator were the only two specialty interests on a twelve-member industry committee wing. For the record – Murray Goulbourn Co–op and Dairy Australia had two sitting members each.

Why would corporate dairy feel threatened by small, specialty producers anyway?

Cleopatra's Bath Milk is raw cow's milk sold as a cosmetic through the current loophole. The Cleopatra's farm based in Nambour, Queensland produces up to 1000 litres a day, and trucks 5000 litres interstate (as far as Perth) weekly. The raw milk vending machine in New Zealand moves up to 200 litres a day.

Retail, raw milk can fetch $5 a litre. When Coles and Woolworths sell milk for $1 a litre, it is little wonder corporate dairy are protective over their increasingly squeezed market.

There are several other dairies using the same loophole to sell unprocessed milk. Consumer demand is driving it. Other suppliers are driven underground.

Black market milk is a reality in Australia and the risk associated with people drinking unregulated and untested milk is a consequence of raw milk prohibition.

There is no question that a safe model for raw milk can be instituted. Aside from New Zealand, it has been successfully done in 25 US states, the United Kingdom (bar Scotland) and Europe.

FSANZ wants to get the legislation right, and is currently working on a proposal to further match what artisan cheese-makers can produce at home to what is being imported. But FSANZ needs to review how representative its own processes are as well as smoothing out the contradictions and inconsistencies that surround raw milk legislation today.