Commissaries in England will see shortage of U.S. milk

[unhappycamper]

Commissaries in England will see shortage of U.S. milk
Stars and Stripes
European edition, Sunday, January 10, 2010

Cold weather and snow that hammered Britain during the past week will mean a shortage of U.S. milk at commissaries this week.

Snow and subzero temperatures have made it harder for dairy farmers to get their raw product to processing plants that fortify the milk with vitamins A and D before it hits commissary shelves, according to Geri Young, a spokeswoman with the Defense Commissary Agency.

As a result, she said Friday, on Monday commissary shoppers can expect to see British-style milk that is not vitamin A- and D-fortified, as normal American milk is.

The British milk being delivered Monday is a “totally acceptable product” that is sold in British stores, according to Terry Batenhorst, director of operations for DeCA Europe. “The packaging looks exactly alike,” he said.

DeCA officials hope to have American-style milk flowing again at commissaries by Wednesday, weather permitting.


Article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=67135

[sui generis]

1. I spent Thanksgiving on a private dairy farm

milk fresh from the cow - no chemicals or hormones, no pasteurizing, certainly no homogenizing, no vitamin A - Z, and they had a good clover patch and sweet hay in the fall (you really don't want cows chewing onion grass or bitter greens). To be fair, we do skim the cream, although the magpies who get twice daily potato skins and fresh cream are so fat they routinely crash and roll on landing.

It's like crack. I could give up all other food.

[Captain Hilts]

2. We fly milk to the UK for the commissaries?!?!

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. No, I think it sounds as if there are certain processing plants in the UK, or perhaps Europe

at which the vitamin A and D levels are enhanced - which is, I think, standard practice in the US, but it isn't in the UK. The plant or plants won't be common (because the market will mainly be US forces' families stationed in Britain, or perhaps elsewhere in Europe), and so any transport problems hits the plant(s) more than relatively local UK pasteurizing plants, whose product the American families are going to have to bear for a day or 2.

Here we go:

Where does the fresh milk
come from and how is it
produced?

DeCA currently has contracts with European dairies located in Denmark, Holland and the United Kingdom to produce the fresh milk sold in European commissaries. The milk is produced according to American specifi cations, including safety and sanitation standards, and is fortified with vitamins A and D. Fresh milk purchased on the economy is not vitamin fortified.

http://www.commissaries.com/regions/milk_info_flyer.pdf