School Milk Programmes – Results of Survey by FAO and ID F Now Available

05 Oct 2015 --- Results from a global survey on school milk programmes have just been published in a new Bulletin of the International Dairy Federation. This survey provides the most up to date information on school milk programmes and how these have developed since the last survey carried out by FAO in 1998.

As mentioned in the FAO publication “Milk and Dairy Products in Human Nutrition,” milk and dairy programmes hold promise for improving human nutrition. Milk is an efficient vehicle for delivering numerous critical micronutrients and improving growth of young children. An article published in Nutrition Reviews also confirms the crucial role that dairy products play in contributing to adequate intakes of nutrients by children and adolescents and that childhood dairy product consumption may affect various facets of growth and development.

Conducted jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the International Dairy Federation, with the support of Tetra Laval, this survey is the largest of its kind in many years. It provides an in-depth look at school milk programmes in the Americas, Asia, Africa, Australia and Europe.

Through the survey we gathered a large amount of information on consumption, programme structure, nutrition, promotion, packaging, market value, administration and distribution for sixty school milk programmes

As regards to outreach, FAO has long-established networks to share information on all aspects of school milk and its expertise was integral to the success of the project.

“I am happy that the IDF has taken the initiative to rerun the school milk survey and by so doing provided much-needed updated information and analysis on this important subject. I look forward to the IDF promoting further work related to school milk programmes, as it is at the forefront of developing, sharing and disseminating the latest scientific information on dairy related nutrition to demonstrate the important role of dairy in enriching the nutritional quality of diets.” commented Michael Griffin from the FAO, who was responsible for the 1998 international school milk survey.

Some highlights of the survey include:
A total of 140 million children benefit from school milk, with around 57% of those receiving it at least 5 days per week.
The most common serving size for school milk is between 101 and 200ml
When asked whether milk was consumed more or less compared with other drinks, 48% of respondents said that milk was consumed less than other drinks. Only 23% reported that milk was consumed more than other drinks

“Globally, School Milk schemes play a key role in ensuring that young children have access to nutritious foods. The importance of this cannot be stressed enough given the role nutrition plays in long term growth and development and overall health. Given the diversity of programmes across the globe, a review of existing schemes was a much-needed exercise to gain valuable insights into how successful programmes were run and to share and learn from other countries’ experience and results. said Judith Bryans, Action Team Leader on School Milk Survey.

“This review will be useful to all parties involved in school milk schemes from schools to suppliers, with new insights on consumption, promotion and logistics. I am very grateful to the Action Team for their outstanding work to deliver these excellent results.”

However, many health professional argue that milk causes more problems than the benefits it may provide and that it is an unnecessary component of the modern day diet. Dietician Andy Bellatti says “Milk is simply not necessary in the diet. Every nutrient in milk can be found in whole plant foods, and some nutrients needed for healthy bones, like vitamin K and manganese, are not in milk, but are in whole plant foods.”

Dietician Cassie Bjork agrees: “Milk specifically has a few caveats. Milk is highly insulinogenic, which means it spikes blood sugar levels. It also has inflammatory properties, so is a common offender of acne, sinus congestion, and digestive distress. Milk isn’t well tolerated by many, maybe even most, people. Lactose is present in much larger quantities in milk than in butter, cheese, and yogurt, and many people have a difficult time digesting it. We don’t have any nutritional requirement for cow’s milk and obtain the same nutrients in meat, seafood, veggies, fruits, and nuts.”

In fact, the majority of people who advocate milk consumption as part of a daily diet are all members of diary boards. In particular, Asians lack the necessary enzyme for digesting lactose. It is estimated that 65% of the population are lactose intolerant after infancy and more than 90% of Asians, making the whole debate around milk and its necessity as part of a balanced diet a polemic one.