Email to Rachel's Organic dairy
Some years ago before we found a suitable supplier of raw milk we used to drink Rachel's whole organic pasteurised milk because it was not homogenised or standardised. Homogenisation is the process by which milk is passed at high speed and pressures of up to 2500 PSI through fine filters. This breaks down the fat globules so that they will never separate again from the milk to settle on top as cream. Standardisation is the process of skimming all milk to standard fat contents; 0.1% in skimmed, 2% in semi skimmed and 3.25% in whole milk. Rachel's Dairy in Wales was later purchased by a large American food giant called Dean's Foods. Shortly after this takeover to my disappointment I noted that they began to homogenise their milk. The following is a response to my email quering why they no longer produced non-homogenised organic whole milk.
Dear Mr Pratt
Thank you for your email of 18th June.
Since the launch of Rachel's milk five years ago we have seen extraordinary growth in the sales of organic milk. The majority of retailer own label organic whole and semi skimmed milk is homogenised as is that of Yeo Valley milk and indeed the recently launched Country Life milk. Of the main brands, Rachel's uniquely offered non-homogenised whole milk alongside our homogenised semi-skimmed milk.
Since the launch, the performance of our homogenised semi-skimmed milk has been much stronger than our non homogenised whole milk. Customer feedback has clearly indicated that the cream separation and the plug that resulted has been deterring people from using Rachel's Organic Whole milk.
Our processing partner since the launch of Rachel's milk has been Dairy Crest. Seeing the growth of the organic sector Dairy Crest decided to launch Country Life Organic milk [last autumn] and as part of that initiative they informed us that we had to find another processor. Our new partner, Wiseman's are unable to produce non-homogenised whole milk and the switch to homogenisation that we had been minded to make for sometime was forced upon us.
I should point out that homogenisation does not extend shelf-life and our milk products continue to carry the same code life.
We do believe that this is in the best interests of Rachel's and will help us to reach a wider audience for our milk. To those who are disappointed by this change we can only offer our apologies. We believe that M&S and Waitrose offer non-homogenised milk as does the Duchy brand.
For the majority who are happy to see Rachel's homogenise their whole milk, the move to Wiseman's offers other advantages, one such example is a change in pack design which has helped eradicate the problems experienced with the opening of the previous carton.
Wiseman's are currently developing a brand new dairy in the West Country to be opened in 2007. The focus of this dairy will be organic milk and we are delighted to say that local biofuels will provide a substantial source of power for the plant.
Kind regards
Jo
(Joanna Tett-Davies, Technical Manager)
Rachel's Organic
Comments: It was good to receive an open and honest answer here. Rachel's were forced to make the choice due to pressure from their larger partners who helped to process their milk to fall in line with their processing methods. Homogenisation unfortunately increases the damage that has already occurred during the pasteurisation process. The cholesterol within the milk fat becomes oxidised. Oxidsied cholesterol has been shown to play a part in the pathology of heart disease. It is a shame that Rachel's had to make this choice. Try to seek only pasteurised, non-homogenised, non-standardised milk organic milk. Unless of course you are blessed enough to have a high quality farm you can buy raw dairy products from!
