Striking claim from the dairy sector! 'Must be removed from shelves immediately'

Cihat Şimşek, who holds the title of Vice President of the Central Union of Dairy Producers of Turkey and is also the President of the Balıkesir Altıeylül and Karesi Dairy Producers Union, expressed his reaction to the 0.1 percent fat milk that has been on shelves since November.

'You cannot make cheese from this milk, you cannot make yogurt. There is no fat in it. It is used for irrigation purposes,' said President Şimşek, making scathing remarks and claiming that milk with 0.1 percent fat, from which the fat has been extracted, is also harmful to human health.

"WE DEMAND IT BE REMOVED FROM SHELVES"

Şimşek said, "We all shop and visit markets. Milk is also a part of our lives. While we, as producers, struggle to sell the milk we produce, and while industrialist friends apply penalties to milk that tests below 3.6 percent fat in the analysis of milk they receive from producers, and leave 3.2 percent milk in the hands of farmers without buying it, we see many brands in markets with labels like 3.1 percent fat, 3.2 percent fat, or full-fat milk. Why are you offering this product to the consumer when you are not buying it from the producer? The most important active ingredient in milk is fat. The real danger starts here. When purchasing milk, industrialists provide a premium, and this premium is given according to the fat content of the milk. However, since November 15, 0.1 percent fat milk has emerged in markets. 0.1 percent fat milk means this: zero fat. With 0.1 percent, they are declaring the fat they could not extract. Its price is also lower than the others. In our country, everything is shaped according to purchasing power. Since 'milk' is written on all of them, citizens prefer the product with the lower price without looking at the fat ratio. After a while, this will become a habit for our people, and when they consume real milk, their bodies will not be able to digest it, and problems will arise. We demand that the relevant authorities and offices remove this low-quality product, which is like water and of a type that could be used for irrigation, from the shelves."

"BECAUSE REAL MILK DOES NOT REACH THE CONSUMER, MILK APPEARS TO BE IN SURPLUS IN OUR COUNTRY"

President Şimşek continued his words as follows:

"When we ask, milk production in Turkey appears to be very high. For this reason, the state carries out regulatory purchases. While the state takes on the storage costs related to turning 2,000 tons of milk into milk powder per day, the fact that the industrialist continues to sell water as milk by extracting the fat from the milk on the other side causes the economic burden of the unpurchased milk to be carried. Many of our local industrialists have declared that there is a butter shortage in Europe during these periods, and that there is no such situation in Turkey. Of course there isn't; if they extract all the fat from the milk and present it to the market as 0.1 percent fat milk, the industrialist will not face a butter shortage. Because real milk does not reach the consumer, milk appears to be in surplus in our country. Similarly, semi-fat butters have started to appear on the market. What does this mean, friends? Butter is butter. There is no such thing as semi-fat or a different form of it."

"THESE COMPANIES SHOULD BE CLOSED DOWN"

Emphasizing that they find it appropriate for the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to disclose firms that engage in adulteration and fraud in production, President Şimşek said, 'it is not enough.'

Şimşek said, "Our request from our Ministry is that if those whose products are published on these lists twice enter the list for a third time, these companies should be closed down. They should not continue to play with human health. Because while they are playing with the health of the consumer, they are also playing with the future of the producer."

"PEOPLE MAKE YOGURT FROM MILK, THEY MAKE CHEESE! YOU CANNOT MAKE IT FROM THIS MILK, THERE IS NO FAT IN IT"

Answering the question, 'You don't call 0.1 percent fat milk milk, so what is it?', Şimşek said, "People make yogurt from milk, they make cheese. For example, if the fat ratio of the milk is good, you can make cheese from 6 kilograms of milk; you cannot make it from this milk because there is no fat in it. Why are people showing interest in buffalo milk recently, why are they showing interest in Jersey milk? It is a situation entirely related to the fat ratio inside it."