“We cannot play with human health just because people make a living from street milk”
Noting that 95 percent of the milk produced in the European dairy industry is delivered to the consumer in a hygienic and packaged form, İsa Coşkun, Chairperson of Turkiye Milk, Meat, Food Industrialists and Producers’ Association (SETBİR), said:
“All our effort is to get to that point. There are products that are not packaged and that cannot be adequately controlled. This is also important for human health. It’s not like other fields. It’s like that in every aspect of food, but milk and meat are really perishable products.”
Coşkun explained, “We cannot say: ‘There is a reality, street milk in Turkiye.’ Of course, it is not easy to change some things. Raw milk is sold on the street for 7.5 liras. Citizens also buy because the price is reasonable. I passed the tax part of that business. It’s a different subject. So how hygienic is this milk? Because what is its microbiological feature? What is the aflatoxin, antibiotic status in it? What animal’s milk is it? What food does that animal eat? Do you know these?”
“People say, ‘I buy milk from the next village, I make yogurt.’ It’s impossible to say anything with certainty, but do you know his story? Come on, you have an animal at your disposal. You feed him with the feeds you know, veterinary control happens. You express your milk and make yogurt in certain ways. This is of course natural. In addition, to what extent is the milk that comes with milk cooling tanks, which you do not know, drinkable? Therefore, we cannot play with human health just because some people make a living in this field,” Coşkun added…