Queen Elizabeth has reportedly been a long-time raw milk drinker, but she apparently doesn’t hold sway over her country’s food regulators.
A year ago, the United Kingdom’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) created a stir of excitement among raw milk drinkers when it said it was considering expanding access by allowing raw milk in vending machines.
But now, a year later, the FSA says nothing doing on the vending machines. The UK’s raw milk regulations will remain unchanged, with raw milk available directly from licensed dairies, according to a press release and a 15-page review of its raw milk policy.
What convinced the FSA to pull back on the foray into vending machines? One outbreak of illness associated with raw milk, following on a dozen years without a single raw milk illness. Unfortunately for raw milk fans, the outbreak came last August, a month after the the FSA had indicated it was open to the possibility of raw milk vending machines, and the outbreak involved two cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) in children; HUS is a complication of infection from E.coli O157:H7.
Here is what the official review states: “There were no reported cases of illness associated with RDM (raw drinking milk) in the UK between 2003 and August 2014….The first UK reported outbreak of STEC (Shiga toxin-producing E. coli) associated with RDM in 12 years occurred in autumn 2014 and involved 9 cases (7 primary and 2 secondary cases). This provides direct evidence of the risks associated with RDM and severity of the disease that can occur…..Prior to the outbreak of STEC O157 in 2014, the last outbreaks of illness directly linked to RDM in England occurred during 2002. In the most recent outbreak, 7 out of 9 cases were children and two cases developed Haemolytic Uraemic Syndrome (HUS), a severe complication that includes kidney failure. This supports the established view that there is a heightened risk for vulnerable consumers…”
In conclusion, the FSA says, “There is sufficient evidence to allow us to conclude with a significant degree of certainty that the level of risk associated with RDM is acceptable for most consumers but this needs to be managed to ensure it remains at the current level. There is direct evidence to support the longstanding view that risks to vulnerable consumers are heightened and action may be needed to increase awareness of those risks.”
In its press release, the FSA offers a vague promise to re-consider expanding access if raw milk producers demonstrate ongoing safe practices. “The review does not rule out future relaxation of the raw milk controls if the industry can show a high level of compliance with the current rules. However, evidence from the review currently indicates uneven compliance across the raw drinking milk sector. It therefore concluded that it is not appropriate to introduce such a change at this time.”
Is the FSA being overly nervous? After all, the nine illnesses last year from raw milk still make the 12-year average from 2003 to 2014 less than one per year. And it doesn’t provide evidence of the “uneven compliance” with raw milk regulations. But then, isn’t that the nature of regulators, to be overly cautious in certain arenas? Especially if the industry in question doesn’t have a lot of financial clout.
(Thanks to Gordon Watson for his alert on the UK’s review.)
How convenient. The timing of it all . . . . . . .
“overly cautious in certain arenas” sounds too much like the Who or Rolling Stones “uneven compliance” even worse than financial clout” scary mommy says almost a mode of conversation:
can’t complain http://www.scarymommy.com/articles/i-cant-complain?section=scary-mommy-blog&u=5NHSJvXHnXd
Hold sway sounds like a great name for a rock band backed up up by financial clout
Overly Nervous was already taken by https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-qObaURt6Q
Aajonus always said the royal family had their own herd of cows for raw milk. It’s just not good enough for the “peasants.”
Hi David, I love your new site and how I can finally be notified when you have a new post up!
That’s interesting about the queen being a raw milk drinker, my husband said he also heard she drinks a Guinness each day for breakfast (too bad those have high fructose corn syrup, or they do in America anyway), AND beef heart too, no wonder she looks so healthy. 🙂
Kelly
Hmmm…not sure I’d care.to wash down my raw milk with a Guinness, or vice versa. Glad you like the new blog platform.
I’m just realizing that the incidence of illness in the U.K. isn’t unlike that in the country’s namesake, the six New England states. Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire haven’t had an illness from a licensed dairy in at least a decade. Vermont appears to have had a few cases of campylobacter some years back, from a conventional dairy’s raw milk. In fact, in all of the six New England states, I am aware of one serious outbreak–in Connecticut in 2008, 14 illnesses from E.coli O157:H7, which led to four cases of HUS. Three of the six states (ME, NH, CT) allow retail sales of raw milk. MA and VT allow on-farm sales. One (RI) bans all raw milk sales. Everything seems to be working very well, with much more liberal availability than in the homeland.
I’m just testing to see if my avatar came up…
Ora, I believe you commented to me about looking good in a mustache. I’ll have to see if I can get a few of my girls to pose for you wearing some ‘staches. I’m not really sure I will be able to get them to cooperate though. I don’t do Photoshop, so I can’t draw them on.
DD, I was only joking, based on the icons that show on the new site everybody now has a mustache until you replace it with your own icon. But I have one IRL in fact I look like this ( ; { ) not much hair on top so I gotta keep the facial hair there’s some white on it but maybe it’s from drinking that milk.
Ora, I knew you were joking! I was just trying to have a little fun with you. 🙂
Elizabeth has sworn an Oath to uphold the Common Law, not statutory/legal/roman law.