Sale of ‘loose’ milk is outlawed in Wexford

December 1981

The days of ‘loose’ milk in Wexford seem numbered. The Corporation has adopted an Order under the Milk and Dairys Act, prohibiting the sale of unpasteurised milk, after years of refusing to conform with the advice of the Department of Health.

Members made the decision on Monday night by a majority of seven votes to four. Now producers of unpasteurised ‘loose’ milk will have to apply standards set by the Department of Agriculture, members were told.

It was revealed that Wexford was one of just two towns of its size in Ireland which had not yet made an order banning the sale of unpasteurised milk, a letter from the Department of Health pointed out.

And the Corporation was split almost down the middle on the issue. The Order was bitterly opposed by Cllr. John Roche.

He had opposed it for years, he said, and would continue to do so. He said it was only recently that people were ‘throwing up this fogey or bogey’ about diseases which could be contracted from drinking loose milk. ‘By making such an Order, we are removing people’s rights, and also their livelihoods,’ he said.

Mrs Avril Doyle disagreed ‘vehemently’ with Mr Roche. ‘There is no bogey attached to this at all. If Wexford was a clearance area under the Disease Eradication Scheme, it might not be so bad, but it is not, and children are in serious danger if fed unpasteurised milk,’ she said.

Cllr. Kevin Morris said he gave up drinking loose milk some time ago, following health ‘advice’ from the Department. ‘But I don’t feel any different now. I certainly don’t feel any better through not drinking it any more,’ he said.

Cllr. Padge Reck felt people should have a choice about whether to buy milk that was pasteurised or in its more natural ‘loose’ state. Town Clerk, Eddie Breen, said the Order would not prohibit completely the sale of unpasteurised milk, but such milk would have to conform with designated standards.