What is Raw Milk?
Simply put, raw milk is milk as nature intended: straight from the cow; no pasteurisation, no homogenisation; nothing added and nothing taken away. As a result, all the proteins, enzymes and beneficial bacteria (which are otherwise destroyed by the pasteurising process) are still there. There are many claimed health benefits of drinking raw milk, be it from our customers, studies, or historical documents such as The Milk Cure.
We have been selling raw grass-fed cows' milk since 2008 - from bottling twelve litres out of a drum in the farmhouse kitchen and delivering from the back of Phil's Volvo Estate, we now sell over 3000 litres of raw milk every week: on local delivery rounds, at farmers' markets in London, and all across the UK via courier.
On our milk rounds and at markets, our raw milk comes in reusable glass bottles, which feature a short story about one of our cows, and are available in 500ml, 1L and 2L sizes. We also offer full-fat, semi-skimmed and skimmed milk.
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Our raw milk, along with the rest of our dairy products, is non-GM0, non-homogenised, and currently about 89% A2 casein protein. Our cows are grass-fed all year round and completely free of antibiotics, steroids and hormones.
Storage instructions: Keep refrigerated, ideally in the coldest part of the fridge, on the bottom shelf. Our raw milk can also be frozen, without losing any of its nutrition. If freezing, freeze on day of purchase; defrost in fridge.
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Shelf life: We give our raw milk a Best Before date of 9 days from the day of production. Once opened, raw milk should begin to sour after 4-5 days – however, raw milk does not spoil the same way as pasteurised milk, and is therefore still perfectly safe (and healthy) to consume even after souring, be it consuming directly or in cooking.
Raw Milk vs Processed Milk
Before pasteurisation all milk was raw milk. Historically, although there are well documented health benefits associated with drinking raw milk, there were also health risks with drinking raw milk. These were particularly tuberculosis, brucellocis, and bad bacteria such as Salmonella, E. coli and Campylobacter. When pasteurisation was introduced, it sterilised the milk of these harmful elements. It is for this reason the Food Standards Agency Health Warning "This milk has not been heat treated and may therefore contain organisms harmful to health" must be put on the bottle. Raw milk and pasteurised milk are totally different. In fact you could almost say that they only have two things in common, they are both fairly white in colour, and both called milk! The more you understand raw milk, the more you realize what an amazing food it is.
Pasteurisation
Before pasteurisation, raw milk had associated health risks. Tuberculosis (TB) and brucellosis were found in many herds at the time, and these diseases could be passed on through the milk. Additionally, the actual milking process was very basic, allowing contaminants into the milk that contained bad bacteria such as E.coli. So there were problems many years ago. But what about today? In the UK, TB is still a big problem in most of Wales and the Southwest. However, in the late 1970s, the UK became free from brucellocis following a nationwide eradication programme. Our Hailsham Herd, established in 1959, has always been TB- and brucellocis-free. Today's herds are milked in a hygienic environment, using advanced milking equipment that is kept sterile. We pay fantastic attention to hygiene to ensure the strict bacteria tests conducted on the milk by the Food Standards Agency are easily met. Today, our milk is regularly analysed and our processing plants regularly inspected to ensure that the cleanest milk is produced. In this way all the benefits of the good bacteria in the milk are kept, without having any of the problems associated with bad!
Homogenisation
This is the physical smashing of the milk fat particles into smaller fat particles, so that they do not rise to the top, but remain in even suspension throughout the milk. This ensures the colour is consistent (i.e. no cream at the top of the container, or cream line). However, there are health concerns that the body cannot deal with these very fine fat particles that can pass straight into the bloodstream causing health problems.