The advertiser, who has remained anonymous, has quoted a special edition of Aggornat, which MIC published in January 2003, explaining the results of EU negotiations on the agricultural sector.

MIC said that in the advert, the advertiser quoted those parts related to the fat content of drinking milk, the stocking density on dairy farms and the public health protection in milk and milk products.

Regarding the stock density, the advertiser conveniently left out the following sentence: “Moreover, for the purposes of determining the stocking density, no account shall be taken of dairy cows needed to produce the total reference quality of milk allocated to the producer.”

On the question of public health protection in milk and milk products, the advertiser left out the following: “The EU emphasised, however, the crucial importance that dairy farms and milk processing establishments (as against farms) comply with EU rules to guarantee food safety.”

MIC said that one has to bear in mind the context in which the accession negotiations were conducted in the agricultural sector. The Maltese government wanted to safeguard the farming industry and to help it compete in the EU’s single market, and on the other hand it wanted to safeguard the right for choice and quality for consumers. EU accession negotiations in no way intended to compromise on food safety.

MIC reserved the right to take further action on these anonymous adverts. MIC feels that whoever published these adverts should have had the decency to inform readers about his or her identity before trying to advise consumers by quoting MIC publications and conveniently failing to include all the facts.