Sydney company Made by Cow will this week start selling unpasteurised milk that has undergone a high water pressure treatment to kill harmful bacteria within it.
The SMH reports that the company has obtained the approval of the NSW Food Authority to start selling the product.
The Authority said in statement it had approved HPP as an alternative to heat pasteurisation for killing harmful bacteria in milk, though it added that it did not endorse any products.
According to the company’s founder Saxon Joye, the product is sourced from one herd of jersey cattle.
“Good herd management, hygienic milking techniques and the cold pressure method have meant we can put 100 per cent safe, raw milk onto supermarket shelves,” he told the SMH.
“The bottles of milk are placed under enormous water pressure, squashed in about 15 per cent, to remove the harmful micro-organisms.”
Despite the fact that some people claim raw milk is more nutritious than pasteurised milk, it is illegal to sell it for human consumption in Australia.
The issue came to a head in 2014 after the death of a three-year old who drank raw milk.
“This process allows people to enjoy the natural, tasty and nutritious goodness of raw milk, without resorting to the use of heat pasteurisation or homogenisation,” Joye told the ABC.
Apart from this new product, all other milk sold for human consumption in Australia has been pasteurised, or briefly heated, to kill bacteria.
The view that pasteurising milk detracts from its nutritional benefits is contentious.
CSIRO food microbiologist Narelle Fegan told the ABC there is “no evidence that the health benefits of milk are substantially compromised by pasteurisation”.
The product will be sold through Harris Farm supermarkets and and About Life health shops.