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Public encouraged to do #MilkPintChallenge to support British dairy

7 March 2019 | by FarmingUK Team | Dairy, News
Dairy farmer Andy Venables, who fronts the Mission 4 Milk campaign, is encouraging the public to rediscover cow’s milk
Dairy farmer Andy Venables, who fronts the Mission 4 Milk campaign, is encouraging the public to rediscover cow’s milk

A newly-launched campaign is urging the British public to rediscover milk and its health benefits by taking part in the #MilkPintChallenge.

Mission 4 Milk, launched in February, is a campaign which sets to raise awareness about how milk can be part of a healthy lifestyle.

Its launch comes as the future of cow's milk looks increasingly uncertain with soy and almond alternatives steadily growing in popularity, especially among younger people.

According to Jamie Oliver’s Channel 4 documentary, sales of plant-based alternatives to milk have doubled in the last five years, meanwhile consumption of dairy in the UK has fallen by 20% over the past thirty years.

Dairy farmer Andy Venables, who is fronting the Mission 4 Milk campaign, is now encouraging the public to rediscover the various health benefits of cow’s milk.

He launched the campaign after realising that milk is declining most rapidly among millennials, which means many young people are at risk of missing out on valuable nutrients.

Andy is now challenging the British public to grab a pint of milk and take a selfie of them enjoying it, or take part in the #MilkPintChallenge and share it to Mission 4 Milk.

Various industry groups and farmers have already taken part in the challenge as part of last month's 'FebruDairy'.

Andy believes that the way in which milk products are marketed to the public, in particular younger adults, plays a big part in its decline in popularity.

He said: “Milk packaging and branding has changed very little over the past twenty years; meanwhile new brands releasing plant-based alternatives, such as soy and almond, clearly display the nutritional benefits of their products on their cartons, along with attractive branding.

“For this reason, many people are unaware that cow’s milk offers more nutritional value than many of its dairy-free counterparts and are choosing to leave their pint of cow’s milk on the shelf.

“Milk was once a staple item on every household shopping list, but ‘free-from’ movements and intolerances which dominate the younger generations have made people start to favour dairy alternatives, and not always for the right reasons.

“While some people undoubtedly suffer from dairy and lactose-related complications, a large number of those who have given up dairy have done so as a result of self-diagnosis or because it is trendy to do so.”

He added: “They do not realise how many valuable nutrients milk contains. Mission 4 Milk’s aim is to communicate the health benefits of milk to people of all ages, arming them with valuable information before choosing to cut dairy out of their diets.”

In Jamie Oliver’s video child nutrition specialist Charlotte Sterling-Reed points out that plant-based milk alternatives do not offer a like-for-like substitute to dairy milk when it comes to nutritional content. Mission 4 Milk’s video serves as a reminder to the nutrients that cow’s milk offers.