#Strongwomen. "I write about the power of trying, because I want to be okay with failing. I write about generosity because I battle selfishness. I write about joy because I know sorrow. I write about faith because I almost lost mine, and I know what it is to be broken and in need of redemption. I write about gratitude because I am thankful – for all of it." Kristin Armstrong
Let me explain why I and my fellow dairy farmers would like everyone to buy permeate free milk even though permeate is completely harmless
I wrote this post the day after some brands of milk went “Permeate Free” and low and behold it was so popular it actually trended on Google. The reason for this was consumers went shock horror when they saw the Permeate Free label on Australia’s most beloved milk brand and that advertisement on TV that made me so cranky. As it turns out most people had never heard of permeate and rushed home to Google it to find out what it was.
Nowadays food scares are a media magnate and consumers greatest fear as surveys show Australians care most about food and their health. Thanks to programs like a Current Affair who when they are chasing ratings routinely do a food scare segment and the “evil” permeate was becoming a favourite Food scare stories are so popular what we have now in the supermarket is essentially foods in the “Controversy free isles” and foods in the “Controversy isles”
Now I assure there is nothing evil about permeate, its just a milk by product. See this previous post which explains what permeate is. But in their wisdom the major milk companies decided making milk permeate free and advertising it would increase market share for their brands. Well all it has done is put Permeate Free milk front and centre of the Controversial foods isle thanks to this very misguided labelling and advertising campaign by the milk company in question.
But there is an excellent reason why you should buy it.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE everyone buy permeate free milk as the milk processors need to buy 10-15% more milk from dairy farmers. This is because previously they added 10 to 15% permeate to milk to standardise it. Permeate free means they standardise it by essentially taking some of the cream off the top. Which means Permeate Free milk is just like it comes out of the cows with some homogenisation and pasteurisation .
Today I saw for the first time the new advertising campaign by Lion for their “permeate free” milk and I was devastated
The lowest from of advertising is to denigrate some-one else’s product to sell yours and when I saw this add I was embarrassed to be a Dairy Farmers’ supplier. It would appear from the add the “evil” milk is UHT but the media gives me to think its the “No name or House Brand” fresh milk they are referring to.
This is what happened on our farm the day Dairy Farmers milk went permeate free.
We had to put 25,000 litres of our milk down the drain. This was because Lion didn’t have the capacity to pick our milk up. No explanation just a phone call. “Let it all out”
First it was the 5,000 litre vat.
Then it was the 30,000 litre vat.
It was a 24 hour process to ensure it went onto the paddocks as fertiliser and not into our waterways. The look on the staff’s faces when we had to do this was devastating. Thank god the cows didn’t know.
I just shake my head. My social conscience went into overdrive. 1 billion people go hungry every night and we are asked to tip the perfect food cocktail down the drain.
Curious about Permeate then you can read about it in a former blog post I wrote here or find out more by watching this catchy little vid Dairy Farmers have also kindly put together to keep you informed
Its interesting when Permeate burst onto the scene with great fanfare back in 2008 industry reaction was “no comment” Now its “trendy” and it apparently sells milk to talk about it.
By the way I cant find a dairy farmer who knows the “dairy farmer” in the add so it would appear at this stage he is an actor. Somebody please tell me I a wrong as we certainly don’t need people pretending to be dairy farmers as well
You might remember I posted the following blog “Permeate -What’s all the fuss” – reprinted at the bottom of this post a few months ago – when the ongoing “permeate saga” reared its ugly head
Well I must say this media announcement ( see summary below ) today by all the major milk processors who supply the domestic milk market in Australia certainly caught my eye.
Whilst the addition of permeate to standardise milk did not overly concern me as a consumer. The fact that it was, I am given to understand in the main carted all the way from Victoria (note this is anecdotal and not officially confirmed or denied by processors ) to add to NSW farmers milk did rattle my cages.
“Chair of the Dairy Farmers Milk Co-operative, Ian Zandstra, says the decision means companies like Lion will have to buy a little bit more fresh milk from dairy farmers”.
I believe this outcome is a win for NSW dairy farmers already under far too much pressure from things outside their control. For consumers it once again shows “people power”. For industry its a reminder of the pivotal need for transparency at all levels of the supply chain.
Dairy processors say no to permeate
By Sarina Locke
Monday, 25/06/2012
Milk processors have bowed to consumer concerns about the by-product permeate and say it won’t be added to their branded products.
Lion, which produces Dairy Farmers and Pura brands, and Parmalat, which sells Pauls brands, have announced their milk will be permeate free.
Permeate is the liquid left behind after milk is separated into cream and low fat milk, and mixing it back into the milk was seen as an unnecessary additive.
Chair of the Dairy Farmers Milk Co-operative, Ian Zandstra, says the decision means companies like Lion will have to buy a little bit more fresh milk from dairy farmers.
“That’s a good thing. That buffers the nervousness about a cut in contracts,” he said.
“Price-wise, I can’t see it having much effect.
“Clearly, if more milk was needed in regions of milk shortage, there’d have to be a price response and an increase in prices.
“But generally Lion is needing less milk from our farmers in virtually all the regions.”
Dairy Farmers Co-op represents 750 milk suppliers around eastern Australia, from far north Queensland to Victoria. The co-op is in price negotiations today with the processor Lion.
I wasn’t going to write a post about this topic but people I respect are now concerned about the addition of permeate to milk and one of Art4agriculture’s Young Farming Champions wasquizzed about it and wasn’t confident answering the question when she gave a recent presentation. So I decided it was time to debunk the misconceptions and get it out in the open
Permeate so why all the fuss?
As always controversy sells newspapers and attracts viewers in droves for TV shows and apparently food controversy does this better than any other topic.
In fact it’s become so popular that we could have controversy food isles and controversy free food isles in supermarkets and food products and brands would be moving backwards and forwards like yo yos as long as the issue continued to improve ratings .
This week its milk and how it is standardised. Below is a nice simple diagram of how milk is standardised. Standardisation means you can put accurate fat and protein percentages on milk product labels.
Fairly straight forward stuff wouldn’t you say? What the labels don’t say is how the milk was standardised and this is causing controversy because the word permeate now emits “controversy”
So how did permeate fall into the controversy isle of the fridge. My opinion is lack of transparency. Transparency within food systems refers to full disclosure of information about rules, procedures and practices at all levels within a food production and supply chain. Transparency ensures that consumers have detailed information about production of a given food item.
When permeate first appeared in the media the reaction from the big milk companies and industry bodies was “no comment”. Not the wisest decision they ever made.
Milk companies it’s time to fix this mess. If the milk is standardised with permeate put it on the label. Australian shoppers are not known as most discerning in the world, the statistics say we buy on cost and convenience and take 7 seconds to make a food item purchase decision in the supermarket. It’s a pretty fair bet that the word permeate on the label won’t even make a dent in sales but the consumer has a right to know and it’s time to show them that respect
Let’s hope this is a lesson learned “truth in labelling” should be nothing to fear. After all if you are not proud of what goes in your product and you can’t talk about it don’t add it.
Back to permeate – Let’s get fair dinkum I can confirm for milk consumers permeate is nothing to fear. It’s just a milk by product just like cream is but I won’t be whipping to put on my dessert any time soon
Mother’s Day started with the delightful tradition of breakfast in bed. HT delivered Latte, Toast and Honey and the first season Jonquils surrounded by Lavender as I read the latest Henning Mankell novel.
HT (heartthrob) keen to impress
With all this talk of the pros and cons of permeate and its apparent effect on the ability of milk to froth I have noticed with interest the day to day frothing ability of my milk lately. My milk is as fresh as it gets coming straight from the cows to my fridge via the milk vat which drops it (with the help of the plate cooler) from 37 degrees C to 4 degrees C in the blink of an eyelid
Now as I explained in an earlier post permeate is the option used by the big processors to ensure a consistent standard of the fat and protein content of milk for your table.
This chart shows the seasonality of milk production in Australia in the years 2001 to 2002 compared to 2010/11 and as you can see the curve is getting flatter. I will explain in a later post why this is. In this case you will note Australian dairy farms produce a lot more milk in Sept to Dec(Spring). This reflects the period when grass is at its best ( high quality as well as quantity). Traditionally this means milk protein and milk fat are lower in spring when milk volumes are higher.
Adding to the standardisation complications for milk processors Australian dairy farms systems are very diverse and what you feed your cows can have a significant impact on the milk components.
Interestingly enough as you can see from the chart below only 5% of Australian dairy farmers feed their cows on pasture alone. We fall into the “other” group in that we have what is know as a “high input” system. To complicate matters even further our two farms have very different high input systems which results in very different fat and protein ratios in the cow’s milk on the two farms.
This chart describes the range of production systems operating across Australian dairy farms & how farmers are increasingly becoming more flexible and opportunistic.
Now my barista skills are good enough to impress most guests as long as I keep the options to short black, long black, latte and cappuccino but in the last month the consistency of the frothing ability of our milk has left a lot to be desired.
On the home farm we milk the “fresh” cows. That is the cows that have just calved to cows that have been milking 150 days. These cows produce less fat and protein than the cows on the Lemon Grove Research Farm who have been milking for 150 days or more. We live on the home farm so we drink the “fresh” cows milk.
Now HT likes copious amounts of cream in his milk on his weetbix and allbran so he brings home a fresh jug every morning and pours the cream off the top. (Yes his cholesterol is not good). This sometimes means we can have 3 jugs of milk in our fridge and this has allowed me to experiment with milk from different days. This morning when I had my second cup of coffee the milk wouldn’t froth at all so I sat it aside and got another jug out and it frothed up beautifully.
Milk from two different jugs in my fridge from the same cows on different days from pasture in different paddocks
We keep records of every paddock the cows go into, what day and what time, the daily fat and protein content and the total milk, how much concentrates (grains etc.) they get in the dairy as well as the weather conditions. All well and good but as I didn’t keep records of when the jugs of milk arrived in my fridge that wont help me to come up with a hypothesis I can prove or disprove anytime soon.
I was curious enough to start asking DR GOOGLE some questions and apparently frothing ability is determined by milk protein and its better when the milk has little or no fat content. According to the Coffee Geek properly prepared milk is always foamed. Incorporating air into the milk improves and sweetens the taste. Milk that has not been foamed at all tends to taste flat and dull by comparison. The quantity of foam you have incorporated into the milk will be dependent on how much is required for the drink and how aggressively you worked to incorporate air into the milk.
Courtesy of the Geek if you want the nitty gritty detail on milk for the novice things can be as simple as this.
Non-Fat Milk will be the easiest to foam. It will not however be as decadent a combination with your coffee and for this reason I don’t ever really like to use non-fat milk.
2% Milk will foam quite easily and is a nice balance between ease of foaming and some fat in the milk making for a creamy and tasty drink
Whole Milk is going to be the most challenging to create foam with. It will however be some kind of tasty when combined with coffee. The extra fat in the milk makes your latte or cappuccino a special treat.
I agree with the Coffee Geek “It’s not just the coffee; it’s the milk too. The milk is important, treat yourself.”
“Remember that the creation of foam is an admirable goal but it is not the end all and be all. We do not want to create foam at the expense of the larger experience and so my preference is always for a fuller fat milk-always.
In Italy they use whole milk. If you were to order low-fat milk they’ll look at you like you’re some sort of bleeding heart, left of centre liberal freak and obviously a tourist with no understanding of la dolce vita or proper café culture.
If you say nothing and drink the coffee as it is served to you, you will get whole milk, very likely enjoy the whole milk and come back home telling everyone how great the coffee is in Italy.”
When I typed in “what makes milk froth” I got lots of hits and this is the one that I thought explained it best. Find it here and summarised below
When coffee milk does not want to froth, these might be the reasons:
1. Proteins in milk
The protein in milk, especially the whey-proteins, is largely responsible for the foaming capacity in milk. These proteins form a film on the surface of the air bubbles in the foam. heating milk above 60°C causes the proteins to be denatured and it is more efficient in coating and stabilizing the air bubbles. UHT milk froths better than pasteurized milk, more proteins are denatured. Changes in season and what cows eat can negatively affect proteins in milk, and thus negatively effect foaming.
2. Homogenization
Homogenization improves the process of steam frothing
3. Milk fat
In general the lower the milk fat, the more foam will be formed. Skim milk will give the greatest volume of foam. This equation changes slowly when milk fat is raised above 5%. Above this value higher fat will give more foam. Breakdown of fat or lipolysis will negatively affect foaming of milk. Lipolysis generally occurs before the pasteurization of milk and is caused by the enzyme lipase. Lipolyses producers free fatty acids. Free fatty acids are surface-active agents, which depress the foaming capacity in milk. Lipolysis can occur spontaneously in milk and is aggravated by agitation. This will occur when the cow’s level of nutrition is low and when she is late in lactation. This occurs in herds and regions due to feed available. This can happen during a period of adverse weather and when cows are seasonally calved. Lipolysis due to agitation commonly occurs at farm when air leaks into teat cluster and air and warm milk are vigorously mixed in milking equipment. Also occurs in factory when air is incorporated when raw milk is pumped. Lipolysis will also occur if raw milk is mixed with pasteurized / homogenized milk
4. Milk temperature
Low temperature makes milk more receptive to taking in of air
I just hate UHT milk ( those little milk thingys you get in hotel room mini bars that don’t have to be refrigerated YUK ) I cant see for the life of me what permeate might have to do with frothing, but I love a great coffee made with full cream milk and some days its easier than others for the cows to help you put the froth on the top
I wasn’t going to write a post about this topic but people I respect are now concerned about the addition of permeate to milk and one of Art4agriculture’s Young Farming Champions wasquizzed about it and wasn’t confident answering the question when she gave a recent presentation. So I decided it was time to debunk the misconceptions and get it out in the open
Permeate so why all the fuss?
As always controversy sells newspapers and attracts viewers in droves for TV shows and apparently food controversy does this better than any other topic.
In fact it’s become so popular that we could have controversy food isles and controversy free food isles in supermarkets and food products and brands would be moving backwards and forwards like yo yos as long as the issue continued to improve ratings .
This week its milk and how it is standardised. Below is a nice simple diagram of how milk is standardised. Standardisation means you can put accurate fat and protein percentages on milk product labels.
Fairly straight forward stuff wouldn’t you say? What the labels don’t say is how the milk was standardised and this is causing controversy because the word permeate now emits “controversy”
So how did permeate fall into the controversy isle of the fridge. My opinion is lack of transparency. Transparency within food systems refers to full disclosure of information about rules, procedures and practices at all levels within a food production and supply chain. Transparency ensures that consumers have detailed information about production of a given food item.
When permeate first appeared in the media the reaction from the big milk companies and industry bodies was “no comment”. Not the wisest decision they ever made.
Milk companies it’s time to fix this mess. If the milk is standardised with permeate put it on the label. Australian shoppers are not known as most discerning in the world, the statistics say we buy on cost and convenience and take 1.7 seconds to make a food item purchase decision in the supermarket. It’s a pretty fair bet that the word permeate on the label won’t even make a dent in sales but the consumer has a right to know and it’s time to show them that respect
Let’s hope this is a lesson learned “truth in labelling” should be nothing to fear. After all if you are not proud of what goes in your product and you can’t talk about it don’t add it.
Back to permeate – Let’s get fair dinkum I can confirm for milk consumers permeate is nothing to fear. It’s just a milk by product just like cream is but I won’t be whipping to put on my dessert any time soon
