Permeate Postscript

Back in July, an article I posted called Milk Permeate – The Unfiltered Truth caused quite a stir. This article was a factual article explaining exactly what milk permeate is and why it is added (with the blessing of the Foods Standards Code) to the milk we buy in the supermarket. At the same time I also wrote an FAQ on the topic called What is permeate and how is it made?

The facts and the real issue

The article and FAQ aroused much comment on the Foodwatch website. In the article I made it clear that I thought the real issue in the permeate controversy was not THAT it was added but that we weren’t being told WHETHER it was added.

We had no way of telling if the milk we were buying had added permeate or not, except for A2 which weighed in at the outset with their declaration that its milk was already PERMEATE FREE. My article called for honesty in labelling so that consumers could make an informed choice.

The current situation

In the last few weeks, it seems that consumer power has won out. Many milk manufacturers have stopped adding permeate to their standard milks and are now labelling them as “Permeate Free”. Pura, Paul's and Dairy Farmers all now have permeate-free ranges and Coles and Woolworth’s are supposed to be following suit with their self-named brands.

Consumer power vs government power

What is really surprising in the whole permeate saga is how quickly the milk companies responded and how quickly they were able to adjust their labels to say "Permeate Free". You may notice that whenever governments talk about legislating for a label change for some reason or another, the food industry complains about the cost of the change, about the fact of the change and about the time-frame of the change. It just shows you that when profits are on the line all sorts of hurdles can be jumped, easily, cheaply and quickly. Consumers have much more power than they realise.