AN ARTISAN island dairy has called for the ban on whole milk in Scottish schools to be lifted.
The Wee Isle Dairy, on Gigha, which produces only whole milk and ice cream, claims advice is changing on the benefits of whole milk versus skimmed for school children, with the current guidelines nearly a decade old.
The dairy is not allowed to provide its milk to the school on the island or in the neighbouring Mull of Kintyre under rules set out in 2008 aimed at reducing childhood obesity.
However dairy owner Don Dennis cited one Canadian study, published last year in the American Journal Of Clinical Nutrition, that showed children who drank whole milk had fewer weight issues than whose who drank skimmed.
He said: “There are conflicting policies, because there is a policy that produce should be sourced locally where possible but that comes up against the higher priority about whole milk.
“The study followed 2,700 children and looked at their weight issues related to whether they were raised on skimmed or whole milk and it was the children who were raised on whole milk that had much less issues with weight gain.
“They also found the children to take part in the Canadian study had higher levels of vitamin D.”
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The fledgling dairy based at Tarbert Farm said schools should have the chance to offer whole milk if the move is agreed among the school community.
He said: “We have been bottling our milk and distributing around shops in Kintyre, filling stations and little shops and so on. The feedback in Kintyre couldn’t be more positive. The people who are 45 and older are saying this is milk like it used to taste. We had initially planned to produce just ice cream, but the local farm shop about a year-and-a-half ago asked if we would be doing milk.
“Then we thought about the packaging question and it took months of thinking it through.We didn’t want to do plastic bottles. And we ended up with these bottles from France.
“They were intended for a single use but they are robust enough that we are now asking people to return them and we have a bottle washer.”
Having moved from his native California to the UK 40 years ago, Mr Dennis has for the past 13 years been living on Gigha, an island of 160 inhabitants off the west coast of Kintyre. From there he also runs a business growing orchids and exporting their essences for therapeutic use around the world, in addition to going into ice cream production with his wife, a dairy farmer who has a multi-generational lease on a Gigha farm.
Now he wants to expand further and wants the school guidelines changed.
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He said: “Our milk is a little bit more expensive, and the glass bottles cost more, but the taste is so much better and we’re not putting any more plastic out there. Our retail price on a litre is £1.45. Kintyre and Argyll with the milk we are primarily looking at supporting the small shops. It’s nice that they have something that the supermarkets don’t have.”
Under the guide to implementing the nutritional requirements for food and drink in schools (Scotland) regulations 2008, the only drinks permitted in schools are water, skimmed, semi-skimmed milk and other lower fat milks, milk drinks and drinking yoghurts, soya, rice or oat drinks enriched with calcium, tea and coffee, and fruit juices and vegetable juices.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Semi skimmed milk is proven to have the benefits of full-fat milk, including high levels of calcium, with much lower levels of fat. The Scottish Government sets nutritional standards for local authorities to ensure pupils are offered balanced and nutritious food and drink. in schools, this includes guidelines recommending the serving of skimmed or semi skimmed milk only.”
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