GOVERNMENT plans to ban sales of raw milk favoured by the Queen and other members of the Royal Family have been abandoned after 5,000 complaints from consumers and producers.
Nick Brown, the Agriculture Minister, has blocked the proposal put forward by Jeff Rooker, the food safety minister, in 1997 in response to scientists' fears that unpasteurised milk - sold in green top bottles - posed a health hazard.
Sales of raw milk and cream increased after the news that it could be dropped in England and Wales. Sales were banned on health grounds in Scotland in 1983 despite protests from enthusiasts that unpasteurised milk can be healthier than heat-treated varieties.
It is understood that Tony Blair told his ministers to avoid a repeat of the consumer backlash that followed the beef on the bone ban imposed in 1997 by Jack Cunningham, then Minister of Agriculture. That restriction is expected to be lifted soon.
Mr Brown disclosed personally to producers that he had halted the ban and saved about 400 family farmers who rely on unpasteurised milk and cream for a living.
Sir Julian Rose, chairman of the Association of Unpasteurised Milk Producers and Consumers, said yesterday that he had asked Mr Brown what the ministry had decided at an organic farming conference in Cirencester last weekend. "He told me: 'I put a stop to that'."
The decision means that Mr Brown has overruled a recommendation by the Government's advisory Committee for the Microbiological Safety of Food. He has also rejected warnings from scientists that people could be infected with E coli of the type that caused 20 deaths in Scotland in 1996 or by tuberculosis and other diseases.
Heat treatment of pasteurised milk was increased last year as an extra precaution. Most pasteurised milk is now homogenised to overcome quality problems when milk is pasteurised for longer periods to kill any harmful bacteria.
The Royal Family drink raw milk and eat unpasteurised cream from the Queen's Channel Island herd at Windsor. Sir Julian is a friend of the Prince of Wales and an organic farmer producing milk and cream from his herd of Guernsey cows on his estate at Whitchurch, near Reading, Berkshire. He said: "This is good news. We have campaigned long and hard for the future of green top milk because it has been clear from the outset that the grounds for a ban have never stacked up. It is encouraging that the Government has realised this.
"Consumption of green top milk has been rising. That seems to happen when the Government says it is going to ban something. There has also been an increase in the number of inquiries from farmers wishing to acquire licences to produce unpasteurised milk. Unpasteurised milk is sought after because of its subtle flavour, freshness and wholesome characteristics."
It is the second time in 12 years that producers have defeated attempts to ban green top milk. The first threat was in 1987 when the Conservative Government backed down after protests. But, under rules introduced in 1995, raw milk can be sold only at the farm gate or on milk rounds.
