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027 355 1701
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3263 Tairua-Whitianga Highway
RD 1 Whitianga, Whitianga
3591 Get vCard

Opening hours

7 days
7.00am - 7.00pm

  • Raw Milk v Processed Milk

    Raw Milk and 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 in our shop. 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.


    Before pasteurisation, raw milk had associated health risks. Tuberculosis and Brucellosis were found in many herds at the time, and these diseases could be passed on through the milk. Also, 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 some areas of New Zealand, Tuberculosis is still a problem. Our herd is TB free and we have reached the highest level of TB free clearance available C10. We are also Brucellosis free. Todays 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 by an independent labratory are easily met. Today, our milk is regularly analysed and milking plant 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!


    This is the physical smashing of the milk fat particles into smaller fat particles, so that the fat particles do not rise to the top, but remain in even suspension throughout the milk. This ensures the colour is consistent (there is 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.