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It’s no good producing dairy products if we don’t promote dairy positively, and rebut the critics who knock our industry. Charged with promoting and defending us on a lot of different fronts is The Dairy Council. Straight Talk caught up with its chief executive Judith Bryans.

Providing the science to promote dairy
The Dairy Council has long been one of the industry’s most respected bodies. Headed-up by Dr Judith Bryans, and funded jointly by the processors through Dairy UK and by farmers via Dairy Co., The Dairy Council is charged with promoting the positives in dairy, and is the industry’s “one stop shop” for answering nutritional and health questions.

Comprising a small team of five people, two of the team have PhDs in nutrition and one is a dietician. In terms of its area of expertise the Council is renowned for punching above its weight, and uses academics and health professionals to help it do so where necessary.

“We have a unique role amongst dairy organisations in educating and informing health professionals, academics and the media about the nutritional merits of dairy products,” Judith says. “We have a good reputation with journalists on milk matters. They come to us because we have the scientific expertise and credibility.”

The organisation also provides the scientific knowledge and expertise to Dairy UK when it is fighting political battles on the industry’s behalf on issues like Guideline Daily Allowances, Traffic Light Labelling proposals, and proposed advertising bans.

Those issues have received a lot of press recently. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) wants to go down the traffic light route, rather than what Judith says is the “far more informative and sensible” Guideline Daily Allowance option. If the traffic light option, which is currently only recommended for use on pre-packed foods such as pizzas, were extended to dairy foods, it would force most cheeses to bear a “Red” light sign because of their high fat and salt content. But this would mask all the positives in the product.

Judith explained, “Cheese has a plethora of positive nutrients, like calcium, protein, A and B vitamins, and the minerals like phosphorus and magnesium. We are trying to address the negatives and talk up the positives.”

But is the FSA, and the Government, listening?

“We help Dairy UK in its arguments by supplying scientific substantiation. The FSA in recent times has reached out to make the point that they are not trying to demonise cheese and we hope that is the case because cheese is a staple food, it is nutritious and is one of the many dairy products that form part of the dietary guidelines in most countries in the world.”

The dairy industry is getting its message across on 3-a-day (the campaign aimed at improving calcium intakes, recommends that people should consume 3 portions of dairy food in their diet each day), she thinks, and it has been used very successfully among health professionals, but it cannot be directly compared to the 5-a-day campaign for fruit and vegetables as that is a Government initiative with substantial financial backing, while dairy’s 3-a-day has no promotional budget. But one retailer has come on board and there are other plans to make the campaign more consumer-facing.

“3-a-day is a very simple message that helps people meet their calcium needs.” So where are we on dairy consumption generally. Is it increasing or decreasing?

“It’s pretty good,” she says. “Consumption of milk is relatively high, and people intend to keep dairy as part of their diets. They see it generally as a healthy food. The latest figures are very encouraging.”:
• 96% of all respondents reported consuming dairy foods;
• when it comes to perceptions of healthiness, 78% of people think dairy foods are healthy and this rises to 88% if you ask about healthiness and suitability for children;
• broken down into individual foods, 93% of people think milk is healthy, 85% think yogurt is healthy, and 53% of people think cheese is healthy.

Finally, does she think there is anything farmers can do to help put across the positives of dairy products, counter the negatives and help to boost consumption?

“Farmers have a vital role to play. We see an awful lot of negative stories in the regional media that are placed by competitor industries or special interest groups. We respond when we see these, but farmers can also do that. They can write to us and we’ll give them the information to put in. They can also keep on supporting us, can join in with our initiatives and tell others what we are doing. Farmer support is very important to us, and valued.”