A campaign to ensure that everyone gets a safe glass of milk saw Amany Abdel-Moneim brushing shoulders with officials, doctors, producers, consumers -- even athletes Milk was our very first food. If we were fortunate enough, this food was our mother's milk, a loving link given and received and the path to future health. If it wasn't our mother's milk then it was cow's milk or milk formula. The very word milk sounds comforting. Very often people feel the need to have a nice cup of hot milk after an exhausting day, or a cold one to accommodate the weak stomachs that some of us were born with. Even the "moustache" of cream on a child's face after he or she has drunk a glass of milk is a joy to behold. Whether taken fresh from a cow on cool mornings, or during the very hot daytime, milk is an important component of our diet, especially for children. Images of healthy, beautiful people appear on our television screens accompanied by the message that "Milk is good for you." I can still remember the late singer Mohamed Fawzi, whose popular song of the 1960s, encouraging kids to drink milk for stronger muscles in one television clip. And these aspects of milk have been built upon by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) through a "World Milk Day" on which all aspects of milk can be celebrated. Beginning in 2001 and now in its ninth year, World Milk Day has quickly developed to be celebrated in almost 70 countries. "The day emphasises the role of milk as a true global food," says Peter Steele of the FAO in Cairo, adding that 1 June was selected because it was a school day for most children around the world, and many countries were already celebrating national milk days on or around the same time. In order to be in line with the FAO's World Day, Egypt's deputy health minister Nasr El-Sayed has also announced the launch of a three-year campaign to promote milk-drinking and assure product safety under the auspices of the Ministry of Health. The campaign, El-Sayed explains, will focus on raising awareness of the risks of not drinking enough milk, especially among children, mothers and adolescents. "Drinking 1,200-1,500ml milk per day protects pregnant woman from high blood pressure by 65 per cent, and from pre-eclampsia [a disorder occurring during pregnancy and the postpartum period and affecting both mothers and unborn baby] by almost 70 per cent," El-Sayed says, adding that drinking low-fat milk reduces the danger of obesity. Annual individual milk consumption in Egypt does not exceed 50 litres, while the international average for developed countries is 250 litres, says El Sayed, who calls for enhancing the role of non-governmental organisations, especially those concerned with the protection of consumer's rights, to persuade people to give up the consumption of "loose" milk. To him, dangers of diseases caused by drinking "loose" milk are not less far than those of bird flu or swine flu. In some parts of the world, a package of milk is a part of everyday life, but this is not necessarily the case everywhere. According to Tarek Tawfik, chairman of the Egyptian Chamber of Food Industries, the informal milk sector in Egypt represents up to 80 per cent of the total milk industry, which amount to over four billion litres produced each year. Milk available from the informal industry is "neither pasteurised nor refrigerated, and it is most often purchased from street peddlers, milk shops or public markets," Tawfik says. Consequently, the government has been dedicating 10 per cent of its annual budget allocated for health to the treatment of diseases caused by "loose" milk. As a result, though milk is certainly good for everybody, not enough of it is reaching people in drinkable form, and milk's journey from cow to kitchen can be a long and unhygienic one. Yet, the real quality of the milk depends on its source. To demonstrate this, Morsi El-Souda, dean of the Alexandria University Agriculture Faculty, refers to the recent study conducted by the university of milk available in Egypt. The study looked at 200 samples of milk and cheese collected from markets in Cairo and Alexandria and demonstrated that they did not meet the American standards laid down to prevent food adulteration. The total count of bacteria and other microorganisms in the samples was high, with bacteria found sometimes including salmonella and listeria, and adulterating substances including sodium carbonate, formalin and hydrogen peroxide. According to El-Souda, bacteria of this sort could cause vomiting and diarrhoea, as well as, in extreme cases, the development of serious illness. Commenting on these findings, Hussein Mansour of the Food Safety Authority says that inspections were generally limited to medium- and large-scale milk producers, and that smaller operations, including small dairies that supply the traditional milkmen who deliver milk door- to-door in almost every district, operate with little or no formal supervision. "These marginal producers exist all over the country and work in a way that is difficult to supervise," he says. Mansour attributes this to the laws that govern the inspection of milk and other foodstuffs, adding that "the laws contradict each other and some international agreements. Some of them go back to the period of the monarchy and cannot cope with modern developments." Serious action should also be taken towards strengthening the Food Safety Authority, he says, draft law having been submitted to the People's Assembly in 2008, "but no action has been taken." Mansour further explained that on 2007 a committee, included representatives of trade, industry, health and populations and agriculture ministries, was formed by the ministerial decree no. 374 to prepare the needed procedures to be adopted once the law is approved. Despite the health risks, the traditional milkman who visits the streets with his bicycle or donkey carrying metal jugs of milk, appears unlikely to disappear any time soon. "Having the milkman come to my doorstep every morning with fresh nutritious milk that is full of cream is something that is hard to give up," admits Sahar Mahmoud, a 48-year-old housewife. To her, the cream she gets from the milk is the perfect ingredient for her famous rice pudding. However, recent studies have also shown that the milk available from such milkmen contains fewer vitamins and minerals than packaged milk. Boiling the milk to sterilise it will further reduce such vital elements without affecting any chemical adulteration, including any pesticide residues. Mansour explains that the problem of unregulated trade is putting consumers at risk. "Many people selling unpackaged milk without a licence are afraid of starting a registered business. They fear that government monitoring would work against them, so they choose to operate in the shadows," he says. For their part, the manufacturers of packaged milk use ultra-heat treatment, in which the milk is heated to 130 degrees Celsius for 2-3 seconds to kill any microbes and then cooled rapidly and packaged in specially-lined hermetically-sealed cartons. This process gives the milk a shelf life of six months, but has the disadvantage of changing the taste of regular milk. Some producers have therefore experimented with bottled pasteurised milk, which preserves the fresh milk's flavour, but has a limited shelf life. Unpackaged milk, on the other hand, has a very short shelf life, and, as it is not pasteurised, may contain large quantities of bacteria. But many people still prefer it because of its fat content. For Fatma Hosni, a 56-year-old professional, packaged milk has an unpleasant taste due, she says, to preservatives that make it stay fresh for months on the shelves. Yet, contrary to what Hosni and others believe, packaged milk does not in fact contain preservatives to make it last. "Nothing whatsoever is added," comments Hussein Suleiman of the Ministry of Agriculture. What is needed, he says, is a change in people's attitudes. "If everybody, starting from small farmers and going up to larger farmers, industry, factories, business and the government, realises that there is a benefit for all then we can achieve the change we are aiming for," he says. For his part, El-Souda calls for promptly adopting the law of setting up a proper national food authority. "This would help raise the awareness of small businesses and producers, in addition to setting up proper milk-collection and refrigeration centres," he adds. However, in many developing countries, and Egypt is no exception, many children are still not getting the milk they need. With more and more children growing up in cities, the demand for milk is increasing. As a result, the Ministry of Education is planning to expand its school meals project, which includes milk, according to Ahmed Salem, the ministry's food department director. Meals should contain a safe dairy product that would guarantee a well-balanced food mix for children, he says, and be in line with dietitians' advice, which is that children should have milk to get enough calcium. "There is a strong correlation between safe dairy consumption and calcium, especially in children," says Hossam Ashour, consultant pediatrician at the Al-Galaa Teaching Hospital in Cairo. "While there is calcium in fortified orange juice, for example, it is not as bio-available as that found in milk," he adds, saying that people need to take calcium with vitamin D and protein to allow the body to make optimal use of it. Ashour also refers to a policy statement issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics that encourages children's consumption of milk or water between meals to help decrease the risk of cavities and ensure good oral health. This further positions dairy foods' role as part of a healthy diet and reinforces the commitment that dairy producers have to child health. Finally, as far as the campaign in Egypt is concerned, the prominent athlete Mahmoud El-Khateeb, who attended the World Milk Day event with some of his football-school students, is expected to endorse the campaign's message and help to pass it on to young people. The benefits of milk and dairy products include: - Weight loss: the mix of elements in milk, particularly calcium and proteins, is responsible for burning fats. - Osteoporosis: Removing milk and milk products from the diet, could lead to calcium deficiency which in turn leads to disorders like osteoporosis. - Colon cancer: Studies have shown that people who regularly eat dairy products have a reduced risk of developing colon cancer. - Blood pressure: Research in the US has revealed that a high intake of fruits and vegetables, combined with low-fat dairy products, will lower blood pressure more than fruits and vegetables alone. - Tooth decay: Consuming dairy products prevents gum disease and tooth decay by stimulating regular saliva flow. - Diabetes: A 10-year study of more than 3,000 overweight adults demonstrated that consuming milk and other milk products protects them from developing diabetes. Milk facts: - Approximately 4.4 billion litres of milk are produced in Egypt every year. - Egypt has approximately 2.2 million milk- producing buffaloes and cows. Consuming a glass of milk a day provides the most essential nutrients the body needs, including:
