Aiyegoro Ome
Many customers may not have paid attention to a low-cost food labelled “filled milk”. Our groceries and parlours sell different brands of evaporated filled milk and condensed filled milk but the average T&T consumer may not be aware of the difference between filled milk and whole milk, despite the advice of health administrators and nutritionists that we should read labels.
Every day consumers are using this particular food and with Christmas a few weeks away, homemakers and caterers are going to be putting filled milk into their shopping baskets to prepare the extra special delicacies that they intend to enjoy during the season.
The matter of filled milk is symptomatic about how little we know about the nature of food products that are imported into T&T.
According to Wikipedia, “Filled milk is any milk, cream, or skim milk that has been reconstituted with fats, usually vegetable oils, from sources other than dairy cows.”
The ingredients in one popularly traded evaporated filled milk lists “water, skimmed milk solids, soya bean oil, soy lecithin 322, sodium phosphate dibasic, carrageenan 407, vitamin D 3.”
I have seen condensed filled milk which contained “refined cane sugar, water, vegetable oil, whey powder, milk powder, maltodextrin, lactose, stabilizers”.
Wikipedia notes that “Pure evaporated filled milk is generally considered unsuitable for drinking because of its particular flavour but is equivalent to unadulterated evaporated milk for baking and cooking purposes. Other filled milk products with substituted fat are used to make ice cream, sour cream, whipping cream, and half-and-half substitutes among other dairy products.”
Possibly unknown to us here in T&T is that coconut oil filled milk was a popular cheap product sold in the United States in the early 20th century and this product was able to undercut the market for evaporated and condensed milk.
Tension developed between big dairy interests and filled milk producers leading to a congressional ban on the interstate sale of filled milk "in imitation or semblance of milk, cream, or skimmed milk" via the "Filled Milk Act" of March 4, 1923”.
However, this act has been systematically reversed and filled milk is now widely sold in the USA.
But what does this mean for T&T? Are consumers here aware that the filled milk that we purchase is not really a milk at all but a cheap alternative?
Where are the reports of surveys on nutritional information pertinent to T&T that detail the advantages or disadvantages of filled milk or any other “milks” for that matter that we have on the market?
In this country where lifestyle diseases are among the main causes of death, preventative measures should be associated with the food products that we purchase from the parlours, shops, and groceries.
It is unacceptable that a food product is advertised in such a way that we the consumers are not alerted (except when we are very diligent) that it is a reconstituted nutriment unlike what we suppose it to be.
Where does the fault lie? It starts with ourselves. But there is also the Chemistry Food and Drugs Division at the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and the Standards Bureau all funded by our tax dollars. They should be resolute in looking out for us.
Just suppose that their findings come up contrary to the opinions of filled milk importers and distributors. Which shall be allowed to prevail, our well-being or their profit margins?
My recommendations are very simple. Read your labels. Develop nutrition classes in the schools. Make sure that citizens use the information from Health Centres where there are health care workers who have knowledge about what is best for our diet.
Likewise, the media may wish to publish information about where else is filled milk a part of other nations’ diets as well as determine the benefits of its use to those countries.