Here's some background information from Ben at NFF:
The Petition
The Foods Standards Agency (FSA) are currently reviewing their position on the sale of unpasteurised milk in the UK. The FSA have always been openly opposed to unpasteurised milk claiming that there is sufficient evidence that it poses a more significant risk to our health compared to other foods and as such should be banned from consumption. The FSA continues to encourage regulation of raw milk and to maintain close contact with the raw milk farms and the bacterial counts of the milk that they produce. Regulation of all food products is of course desirable to ensure quality and cleanliness standards are maintained.
According to the FSA's own report there have been absolutely no deaths recorded at all as a result of illness due to drinking raw milk across the last 17 years, but 149 deaths have been caused by bacteria contracted from eating other foods! When looking at the 242 actual cases of illness related to raw milk consumption over the full 17 years we can determine that there is an average of 14 people each year who may contract a bacterial illness as a result of raw milk consumption. Of course we do not want these 14 people to become sick, but compared to the annual average of 3,634 people who become ill as a result of consuming other foods. Should we not be looking to the other foods that are causing 99.2% of all the food borne illnesses and 100% of the deaths related to food borne illnesses and measuring them against the same stiff ruler that is lined up against raw milk?
It is an inherent human right to be able to chose the foods that one wishes to eat. No government has the right to restrict an individual's right to eat health promoting food. Milk has been consumed for at least 10,000 years as part of the human diet, with some experts estimating that milk may have been consumed for periods considerably longer than this. As mandatory pasteurisation only became a part of British life in the late 1940's this suggests that all the milk consumed prior to this was unpasteurised. There are many cultures who thrived for generations on raw dairy consumption such as the traditional mountain Swiss and the African Masaai.
Smoking is still legally sold to adults in the UK, which more than a fifth of the population still engage in this habit despite statistics showing that 50% of these individuals will suffer an early death as a result of a smoking related disease. They are still provided the legal right to choose. More than 100,000 people die from smoking related diseases per year in the UK alone. There have been absolutely ZERO raw milk related deaths in the last 17 years, yet this food has been, and is being unfairly considered for a potential outright ban. We believe that every person in the UK has the right to chose to drink safe, clean and suitably regulated unpasteurised cows, buffalos, goats or sheeps milk and cream. Please sign this petition to pledge your support to maintain our freedom to eat as we would chose without having our dietary choices restricted. If one food is allowed to be banned from consumption how long until other foods that are considered to be 'linked' to health problems are also banned?
Thank you and enjoy your high quality, healthy milk!!
Please sign the petition at http://www.naturalfoodfinder.co.uk/unpasteurised-raw-milk-uk
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