Response to the Specialist Cheesemakers Association on ‘Microbiological quality of raw drinking milk and unpasteurised dairy products: results from England 2013–2019’

Abstract

We thank Percival and colleagues for their comments in response to our paper 'Microbiological quality of raw drinking milk and unpasteurised dairy products: results from England 2013-2019' published in Epidemiology and Infection in May of 2020 [1]. Following an e-mail correspondence with Dr Percival in 2020 which covered similar ground to that in the letter, two of us (CW and JMcL) virtually met with Dr Percival in October 2020 to discuss her concerns. Whilst this demonstrates our willingness to engage with industry, it is not possible for us to contact all the individual single interest groups on a pre-publication basis, however reputable these organisations may be. We certainly shared the data in this publication with food regulators who, in any event, have closer ties to trade associations than ourselves. Percival and colleagues should note that the subject of the paper is 'Microbiological quality of raw drinking milk and unpasteurised dairy products' and not just cheese made from raw milk. The paper concludes by stating 'This group of products is a concern for public health, and there is a need for continued surveillance and implementation of controls during production and throughout the food chain': we did not single out cheese from other raw milk products or raw drinking milk itself in this sentence. It is worth noting that there is a very limited range of food products for which there is dietary advice for specific risk groups to avoid consumption. Such advice is in place in England for unpasteurised milk and other unpasteurised dairy products [2,3] and provides evidence of the public health concerns applied to these products.