Addressing a press conference to rebut claims made in an advert which was placed by Alf Mizzi and Sons (Marketing) Group, Dr Vella explained that during the negotiations prior to EU membership, Malta never negotiated the specific issue of food safety regarding Maltese milk.

Dr Vella said the milk bottled by the Malta Dairy Products is within the limits laid down by the EU with regard to the Total Bacterial Count. He said the only transitional period requested and granted to Malta with regard to milk was that which concerns the Somatic Cell Count (SCC).

When asked to explain, he said this was the test carried out on every cow to gauge whether its breast is efficient when it comes to producing milk.

The directive on the SCC also encompasses the issue of hygiene but Malta never asked for a derogation for the latter issue.

Speaking about the amount of fat in Maltese milk, Dr Vella explained that the levels of fat are split in three levels: 0.3 per cent butterfat in skimmed milk, 1.5 per cent butterfat in semi-skimmed milk and 3.7 per cent in full cream milk. The difference between the three types is the taste.

Dr Vella said there was 10,000 square metres of agricultural land, half of which is used to grow fodder used to feed cows. “In Malta we give the customer all the necessary protection with regard to food safety. We follow the process very closely; from the stable to the table, as they say,” he said.

When asked specific questions related directly to the advert, Dr Vella said he did not wish to comment about that because he called the press conference just to confirm and “put the people’s minds at rest that the Maltese milk is of supreme quality and was well within the EU standards,” he said.

The acting director of the Malta EU Information Office, Carmel Attard, who was present for the press conference, said that on the question of public health, the advert left out important information.

MDP quality control director Victor Anastasi, when asked, said that at first Benna’s sales were negatively affected by the importation of long-life milk but added that now the sales have reached satisfactory levels.

Alf Mizzi and Sons (Marketing) Group have been selling imported milk under the Frisian Flag brand since 1925, until recently only as evaporated milk but now also in UHT cartons.

The company said that the advert it published was not intended to shed a negative light on Benna’s milk but to complain about the TV commercial in which MDP criticised imported EU-compliant milk.