Ive had UHT milk from several different countries and I can tell you that its very different from place to place. for example, Parmalat UHT milk that i drank in the US tastes like garbage water, whereas polno Alpsko mleko UHT that i drank here in Slovenia actually tastes better than fresh vitamin D whole milk in the states! I was astounded. Im not sure whether its the type of milk used or what, but those statistics on UHT consumption by country, like any statistics should be taken very lightly. Media loves statistics because people always lap them up. =)

Stephen Clare, Lake Jackson , TX

No way! - If the government actually targeted the nuclear power stations and major industries to reduce carbon emmissions etc or develop an affordable alternative of power to the vast majority, they would possibly be doing some good. While everyone should be aware and responsible for doing their bit, in the great scheme of things swapping to uht milk or putting your phone book in the recycling bin isn't going to save our planet. It's all the big businesses that need to be prodding their consciences to make this world a better place before it is too late.

Sarah Carpmail, Coventry, England

NO WAY! I've always thought the French were crazy for lapping up lait sterilisé out of their huge breakfast bowls like there was no tomorrow. The stuff, along with most longlife foods (Smash (which is still quite popular in France & goes under the name of 'purée'), Spam, tinned macaroni cheese, tinned mushrooms etc) is dégueulasse!

H, London,

UHT really does taste different, even in 'blind' tests, and it says something about the taste that people here don't buy it. Most of Europe's milk consumption may be UHT, but what is the consumption per head? I don't see people in France or Spain or most other European countries pouring milk on cereals for breakfast, or even putting it in tea. I'll lay odds that the per capita consumption of UHT in Europe is about the same as in the UK, Ireland or Scandinavia - they just can't buy decent milk any more, so they don't drink the stuff! As others have said, this is probably simply a way of getting rid of the dairy industry and thus reducing methane emissions from cows.

Brian, Farnham, UK

This is just another way for the goverment to dumb us down, Kill off the small farming industry and have us all totally dependant on huge mega bucks corporations such as tesco where we wil only be able to purchase the crap foood that they decree is good enougth for us and the enviroment. The population only contribute to 6% of global warming., the rest is a natural occurance. Do your home work look it up. we are being conned yet again

olive, farnham, surrey

Has anyone actually compared the taste of UHT milk to fresh milk? There would be no contest.
In Jersey cows Britain has the best milk in the world.
Milk should be fresh not chemicalized to lenghten it's life. What is the point of eating if it is not pleasure?

M Hinton, london,

I hate the stuff, I'd rather drink my tea black than put it in.

Steve, Durham,

UHT milk will be slipped in by the back door by the supermarkets like homogenised milk was - and I haven't got used to that yet. Just over 4 years ago you could still buy plastic bottles of fresh milk with the cream on top in some Marks and Spencer's Stores in Bolton but all the other supermarkets had changed to homogenised. Yet no one asked me. It was not driven by customer demand but shelf storage life. It is happening to many other products: the store calls the tune not the customer or the farmer.

F. A. Read-Powell, Eyemouth, Scotland

It is a disgrace that these clowns are employed at all, it is worse at they are paid for by the taxpayers. Find them some thing useful to do or get rid of them.

Ben Stewart, Edinburgh, UK

We know that the next 2 years of China's growth will make its emissions so much larger that you may as well switch off the whole of England for all the difference it'll make, but our stupid leaders are worrying about this kind of micro-tinkering that'll achieve nothing except to annoy the population and cost shops money. And they said John Redwood was from Mars!

redcliffe, London,

Its not that long ago all shops had to but fridges in by law. prior to that milk just sat on a shelf are we going backwards then. What next no fridges in butchers shops and the meat just hangs about. no frozen foods shops. The idea is just barmy.

imacomputergbuddie, millport, scotland

Not just "no" but "Hell No!"

What a kerfuffle about global warming. It's the eco-nuts at it again.

Scott, Durham, NC, USA

It's the cream in the milk which gives it the sterilised taste (just like the crown topped milk of my youth). UHT skimmed does not have that taste and is distinguishable from full fat or half fat milk only because of their creaminess. Use UHT skimmed in tea and coffe and it is fine.

The problem with the suggestion that we be forced to use it is that supermarkets will put other stuff in the fridges which are no longer needed for milk and anyway most of us put the UHT in the fridge when we get it home because we like it cold.

Peter, cheshire, UK

The far side is where all fridges and freezers are taxed because they use energy. This will be alongside heating, phones, computers, tvs, mobile phones, cars (oh no, that's already happening), plane trips (oh that's going to happen soon), train trips, working and anything that uses energy will receive a 'carbon tax'.

Now I'm depressed.

Justin, Nr. Lincoln, UK

Why don't the EU focus on something that would make a real difference.

Ban open fridges and freezers. Force shops to put doors on them. (You wouldn't dream of leaving your fridge door open at home!).

Ban imports of food that are flown in to the country.

Ban bottled water that has traveled more than 100 miles from m source. (I recently noticed water from the Bahamas!)

These changes will vastly cut CO2. Not banning fresh milk!

craig arditto, knaresborough, North Yorkshire

Oddly enough I don't care whether some of you correspondents actually like the tast of UHT milk; I'm even less interested in the suggestion that the French drink little else.

I simply wish to be left in peace by our boring eco-warriors to continue to drink the proper fresh full-cream milk that *I* like - we do after all live in a theoretically fre country!

Mike Bibby, St Albans, England - not EU

Have any of the posters who say they dislike UHT milk actually tried a blind taste test to see if they can reliably tell it apart from "fresh" milk? Use good quality milk for both samples (try "Moo Organic" UHT milk) and see if you can tell the difference. I'm pretty sure I could not.

My family use a lot of milk, and we use both fresh and UHT milk interchangeably. I've never noticed any difference. I wonder if some posters are confusing UHT milk with the chalky tasting "creamers" in little packets that cheap restaurants often use?

S M, Stirling, UK

You just couldn't make this up. So we add more processing to milk (more carbon I guess) to "save carbon" in storage at the retail outlets. Not at home, of course.

Then we force our cattle to eat unnatural foods (processed food that takes more energy to produce) instead of grass, and have less cows, and force them to produce more milk each, again unnaturally.

Then we force consumers to drink that vile stuff instead of natural wholesome proper milk.

Haven't these people got something worthwhile to do? Let's sack half of these idiots and see whether anyone notices the difference.

For God's sake ...

David Hoggard, York,

Whom ever wants long life can have long life milk and whom ever wants normal milk can have normal milk, if the govenment want to change then they are breaching our human right of free choice.
Cutting car and plane trips and factory pollution will do more to save the planet than long life milk.
By 2020 this goverment will be gone so will Gorden Brown he can't last forever as PM.
Poor Cows they deserve better treatment than this Govenment have planned for them.

Peter, Hastings, East Sussex

This is a case of closing the barn door after the cow has bolted. This is idiotic. Cows emit a massive amount of greenhouse gasses through digestion.
This is a piecemeal effort by people that do not understand agriculture or the emissions that cows make. I predict that this stupid idea will be very popular as a result.

Billy, Dublin, Ireland

Aren't we all tired of this save the planet nonsense?

Paul, Barnet, UK

UHT - "Utterly Horrible Taste" - nuff said.

M BIshop, Basingstoke,

It is typical stupid government busy bodying. It says more than anything else we have too many civil servants who have too little real work to do. A 10% cut in civil servants would not reduce their work output at all, and would benefit us all.

UHT tastes disgusting and I cannot believe much would be saved by doing this. Even if Milk was removed from freezers other things would stay, so the shops would fill up the empty spaces with this other milk. So net effect would be increased green house gases. But what fraction of green-house gases is produced by milk? It is probably a tiny fraction and people would be better off concentrating on insulating houses and reducing coal and oil burn at power stations.

Neil Murphy, cromer,

I buy long-life fruit juices and they're fine. I won't buy UHT milk, even if it's going to save the planet, because I find the taste absolutely revolting.

John B (London), London, UK

DEFRA doesn't tell you what the effect on the environment will be to ultra-heat the milk. Where is the supposed net benefit?

Government BeDamned, Defraland,

Well I've been drinking skimmed UHT milk for years. I find that if I buy fresh milk, it's gone off practically overnight. I want some milk for my cereal in the morning but I know that if I buy fresh milk, there's a big likelihood that I'd be pouring the soured stuff down the sink all the time.

It tastes fine, too. The biggest thing to get used to at first is the lack of fat, but that is okay after a couple of days. I can't drink full fat milk any more - it's like drinking butter.

UHT milk is simply milk that has been heated at a very high temperature for a very short time (seconds) and then chilled. The benefit to me is that I need only buy a litre or two a week and I don't have to worry about it going off before I can finish it.

Tina, Düsseldorf, Germany

In the end, consumers will choose to according to price and taste. Having had both types on numerous occasions both here and abroad, I prefer the taste of fresh milk and will continue to buy it until price forces me to do otherwise

Ian Lanceley, Faversham, UK

Unbelievable...........nothing could be more environmentally friendly than drinking fresh milk delivered every other day in bottles which are then re-used for up to 100 times before being recycled. Apart from the disgusting taste of UHT, what about all those non-environmentally friendly containers??

Roz Venner, St Neots, England

Aren't there more important issues that need addressing, like overpopulation!
Having lived in tropical climes for most of my life, I always relished drinking fresh milk whenever back in the UK.
Where will all this meddling end by people trying to justify being employed!

SJW Devon

S Ward, Exeter, Devon

If you chill UHT milk in your own fridge before use it tastes fine. You get used to it, and the French are much healthier than us and they hardly have any fresh milk in their shops. We buy it in bulk and keep it in the garage until we need it which frees up fridge space. I agree about the fridges full of unhealthy sugary desserts. Does anybody buy these things?

Cat, Orpington,

If this is the best our leaders can come up with? Living next to a former Organic Dairy Farm which has been turned into an airfield for microlights, paramotors and skydiving funded a few years ago by a £100,000 grant from DEFRA, under the guise of farm diversification, this proposal is a bit rich! If these mad ideas and schemes continue will any of us really want to continue living in the UK?

K.Lacey, Swindon,

Have they considered the health benefits (or lack of) in mass consumption of processed milk? Surely fresh food is better?

Furthermore, what would be the difference in energy needed be to heat all the milk up in the first place?

This idea sounds ridiculous.

Kevin Williams, York, UK

There must be someone out there who knows which type of milk is bought for the Defra civil servants' teas. Do spill the beans.

Eleanor Wright, London,

UHT milk is digusting and children won't drink it. I know mine won't. Calcium intake for growing children will inevitably be affected creating another health problem. Milk is kind to teeth; kids won't drink water, fruit juice is acidic and attacks enamel, coke is - well if you can use it to clean floors it is much too strong to drink on a regular basis (and what about obesity too...I could go on). This unjoined-up thinking is typical of civil servants who are out of touch with ordinary family life and a government that has gone PC mad.

Lynda Goffin, Norwich, UK

This proposal is too modest. The civil servants lack imagination. Why not also seek to persuade people to give up white wine and beer, drunk chilled, and drink red wine instead, at room temperature? Why not tell people they shouldn't buy cook-chill meals but should learn to cook for themselves? Why not go the whole way and ask people to chuck out their fridge and freezer, and go back to having a larder?

But short of doing those things, why pick on milk?

Anya, London,

Why not reduce chiller capacity in shops by getting rid of some of the 100's of brands of yucky desserts and why do we need so many different brands of margarine and butter. The milk section actually does not take up as many feet of space as these .
UHT milk ruins the taste of everything it goes into..

Elizabeth , Helensburgh, UK

So now they are trying to ruin tea, the Bitish national drink. Is nothing sacred?

Harry Davies, Galway, Ireland

In nearly every aspect of nutrition, we are told that fresh is best. Why should this be different for milk?
I also agree with others that UHT milk tastes horrible in tea and on cereal. I believe that something drastic would have to be achieved in the manufacure to improve the taste before the British public would accept such change.
I try to re-use and recycle, and have flown only 4 times in my 43 years. However, there has to be some compromise between green issues and personal choice, or we'd all be living in communes growing our own food and using earth closets.

Julie Taylor, Hatfield, Herts., UK

Has anybody considered the carbon footprint of converting pasteurising machines to UHT machines, and the energy required to heat the milk to higher temperatures? UHT milk is revolting but this is just another way for the Labour government to micro-manage everybodies life. If UHT was any good the market would responded or is this just confirmation from Gordon Brown that the market should be ignored (again)?

David Leslie, Perth, Scotland

Why not get the supermarkets to design cool rooms along the lines of our old pantries. A well insulated room within the supermarket where they could keep all the dairy and even the beer!

John, London,

This proposal will not affect the energy used to collect and cool our milk on farms or to process it in the dairies. It aims squarely at the retail "chill-chain" of refrigerated storage, distribution and retailing.
Are DEFRA proposing to eliminate all the fresh juices, yoghourts, cheeses, fish and meat products that we enjoy in Britain today? If not, the retail chill-chain will continue to be required with or without fresh milk.
The only rational measure to reduce the climate change impact of this retail chill-chain is to require producers, distributors and retailers to make substantial improvements in their energy efficiency. This must begin in our supermarkets, which have mile upon mile of refrigerated shelving - without a single door in sight! Government intervention to stop this waste is needed because the retailers are locked into a competitive mindset, believing that fitting fridge doors will drive their customers to less ethical retailers who choose not to fit them.

Peter Archibald, Windsor, England

We will not buy it. We will not drink it. We will have nothing to do with it. I will drive longdistances , if only once a week, to buy truly fresh milk. UHT is an abomination.

P.G. Waddilove, Shaftesbury, Dorset

A great idea - if you switch to skimmed UHT milk you can't tell the difference anyway - and it's better for your health. There would be benefits all round.

Chris Verne, London UK,

Hold on a minute... If you walk into any supermarket, you will see straight away that much more of the refrigeration capacity is used to chill meat than milk. So is meat next?

Or is it really the case that this not about global warming at all, but actually about EU trade and competition law and the opening up of the UK dairy market to European UHT milk producers?

Irma Greene, Bath, UK

Tradition and animal rights reasons or not; using animals for food production is highly inefficient and not good news for the environment. Any changes that can be made which do not negatively impact on animal welfare and help minimise environmental damage should be applauded. So what if milk consumption drops as a result? Switching to organically British produced grain/pulse based milks is even better for the environment and can be produced with similar nutritional characteristics using less energy and creating less methane.

Ian Albert, Warwick,

hello there, this is the first time i have ever felt strongley enough to put a post on a web site in my years of surfing the net, i am 23 years old and have just came back from france 2 hours ago, it is the first time i have ever been out the uk, for the whole holiday i was searching for a shop that would sell a pint pint of milk to quench my thirst, it was that bad i checked every shop, garage and restraunt we visited, on holiday with me i had 2 young children under 1 1/2 years old and still get the odd bottle especially at bed time, the hotel that we stayed in only sold UHT milk that we had to spend 10 euros on for 1/2 litre to feed our 2 youngsters every night which they did'nt drink anyway,

i dont want my home ending up where i can't get a pint of milk at ma local spar or garage for ma cup of T in the morning before i endure my day of work ahead of me, and i know many peaople that feel the same way

how can people people drink that clooty water that they call UHT milk

iain, ayr, scotland

I switched to UHT skimmed milk some years ago for dietary reasons and although it took a bit of getting used to, really it's perfectly OK on cereals and in drinks. I upped the quality of my breakfast cereal to something very tasty indeed & don't have it swimming in milk!
Those people decrying it, just gave up too soon! UHT is cheaper & more convenient in carton pack, saves having to hang-around to pay the milkman and can be bought & stored well-ahead of it's consumption date.

M.Smith, Bedale, UK

Another well thought through plan, it seems to me that all we are doing is substituting one way of utilising fossil fuels (local delivery of healthy milk) for another way of wasting fossil fuels in vast amounts for heat energy (for UTH milk manufacture) to develop a product that needs to now be transported over vast distances to various points of sale that the nation already has boycotted through the lack of sales. I wonder why the rest of the world has embraced UTH. Is it because this is all that is available and that a underground system of fresh milk supply has developed? Is it that we have not accounted for all the relevant statistics? Is it that we have looked at similar cultures, it seems as if there are very close groupings amongst those that support UTH and those that use it less? Have we then considered health and prosperity of the nations using fresh milk against those that don’t? Too many questions to get an educated view still need to be answered. Sad that we as a leading nation seem to publish items like this and not first think them through.

John From the country, where they make the real stuff

John, Midlands,

I don't understand how they think that chiller cabinets in supermarkets use more energy than the lights they insist on leaving blazing all day long. My local supermarket shuts at 10pm every night and yet I can come home at 3am and all the lights will still be on. How much energy is that wasting?

And while we're talking about wasting energy, what about all the shops in town and car showrooms that leave their lights all the time even when they are closed? And Christmas lights that blaze throughout the last few months of the year? I think people would prefer a few less shop lights and few more pints of fresh milk. It is a crazy suggestion that this is the solution to being more energy efficient when there are glaring issues elsewhere that need to be addressed by retailers.

Gemma, London, UK

Another barmy idea from people with nothing better to do with their time than dream up crazy, ill thought out schemes.
I think that if we were to dump all our politicians and civil servants in the North Sea we would save enough green house gases to save a dozen planets.
These goons are just full of HOT AIR.

Rodger Slape, London, England

What the hell is going on – As one who (having lost my mother when I was born 1943) owes their life to diluted cows milk, I can only assume that those who supposedly lead and advise us have finally gone completely mad. What utter or should I say udder nonsense! If farting cows are upsetting the ozone layer, then the constant gobbledygook coming from this Government must be a far greater threat and those responsible should surely be culled on suspiscion immediately – don’t you think?!

Helen Found, Newport, Isle of Wight, UK

We will still need dear old Daisy and Buttercup, both expeling methane from both ends, no matter which milk we drink or do the "City Slickers" at DEFRA believe that a switch to UHT will get rid of cows, that is certainly the line taken by the BBC via the Jeremy Vine Show at midday today. Jeremy was promoting a new breed of cow that didn't produce methane!!!!! or at least he was when I very nearly crashed my car into a bus in my attempt to find the OFF switch on my radio. Where in God's name are these people taking us too?????

J Richard Wright, Nantwich, England

All they need to do is make all supermarkets put doors on their chiiler/freezer units. I find it extraordinary they are still allowed to pump all that cold straight into the air (I always put a coat on to go round my local Wiatrose)!

UHT milk is disgusting except as an emergency standby. I have my fresh milk delivered in glass bottles - tetra-pak containers give it a plasticky flavour.

Angela, Cambridge, UK

Anyone reading this with a strong stomach might like to put "b3ta", "maggots" and "UHT" into Google and click the "cache" button to read the horror story.

Paolo Bagarino, Roma, Italia

Rather than starting from the bottom up, i.e. tackling trivial issues, why doesn't the government start top down - by addressing aircraft, road vehicles and the population.

When I see the government has plans to reduce the number of flights/runways, the number of road journeys and to reduce the size of the population, then I may be convinced they believe climate change is being caused by human activity.

CB, Epsom, England

Ultra Heat treated - that hardly sounds like a low energy process. How about banning it in favour of drinking fresh milk instead?

alan, london,

This proposal is extremely unpopular for the very good reason that UHT milk tastes vile, and can really only be used in cooking. Sensible alternative suggestions, such as reducing the vast numbers of chilled and frozen ready meals will probably be ignored. the government equates obesity as being as serious as global warming - ban ready meals and chilled pies etc and they could solve two problems at once!

I think this country has reached the point of no return - government policy is so out of touch with the views of the majority, but there seems to be no way to change things in our so-called democracy.

melanie, bagshot, uk

What about the emmisions produced creating UHT milk? Surely they are greater than those to produce pasteurised. I personally cannot abide UHT milk like many people. Maybe the better solution would be to produce containers which take up less space in fridges and would stack in supermarkets, but then i would still like a bottle shaped shelf in my fridge to hold my white wine...or won't I be allowed that either!

AMC, Burford, England

UHT heats to 135C for a couple of seconds; pasteurisation to 72C for about 15. So, it's entirely possible that the UHT process uses *less* energy than pasteurisation, right?

As with so many other things, I think we Brits are overreacting here. Fresh milk should be available direct from the dairy only. The supermarkets need to be told that they can only stock UHT. That way if people want "proper" milk, they get it from the milkman. Job done. More work for local business, less harm to the environment. Everybody wins.

Except Tesco. Which will probably stuff the idea unfortunately.

As for the taste, I knew a French woman a couple of years back who could not stand the UK's fresh milk. It's all a matter of what you are used to.

People's views in the UK are skewed by the skimmed milk you get in boxes dirt-cheap from the supermarkets -- this stuff is horrid because it has no cream in it, rather than the UHT process itself IMO. Fresh skimmed is just as bad!

Jason James, Darlington, Co Durham

If the only milk were UHT, I would abandon milk consumption completely, keeping to black coffee and giving up cereal for breakfast. UHT is an appalling tasting liquid.

Brian Leeming

B W Leeming, HUNTINGDON, UK

I've got a radical idea.

Why not get your fresh milk from the milkman.

No milk needed in the chiller at the supermarket and everyone can have fresh milk, the milkman can have his job back and the bottles can be reused. No plastics involved.

What an innovative idea....

:-)

Nikki, Southport, Merseyside

What about the carton it comes in. Where can you recycle the "Tetra Pak". . Also once opened it has to be kept in the fridge.. Quite apart from the fact that it tastes terrible.

Gordon, Sevenoaks, Kent

I wish some of you would grow up. When told to change to uht milk to try and help with Cronhs Disease it was done no problem.Some doctors even think that fresh cows milk may cause Crohns Disease.Im not saying it tastes nicer than fresh milk im just saying its not that bad and tastes alot better than soya milk.Some people cant always have what they want so make the best with what they can have.

Mrs Lynn Phillips, Biggleswade, England

For a Government supposedly intent on tackling obesity, it seems incredible that officials are suggesting that refrigeration of milk should be curbed, when milk takes up only a small proportion of the chiller capacity of most convenience stores and supermarkets, compared to fizzy drinks, ready made meals and other processed foods.

I would have thought cutting back on the refrigeration of these products would be far more beneficial, both to our health and the environment!

Julie Colquhoun, Hampshire,

Welcome to a Homogonised Britain!

This could be implemented in all Civil service and government offices by next week. I challenge the Government to do this with their own officers and see what happens!

This sterile form of milk does not contain any beneficial bacteria so would be bad for public health.

Anyone who has travelled in Europe and had a tea or coffee made with this vile white liquid quickly realises why most continentals drink tea & coffee black!

As a director of Slow Food UK I find this suggestion abhorrent

Lyndon Gee, London, UK

What a strange idea!!! I agree with some commentaries above - an idea that was picked out of a hat to provide us with more nutritionally deficient foods - full of hot air. How about reducing emissions from vehicles and getting the electric cars back (did anyone see Who Killed the Electric Car? Or crack down on industrialists who aren't creating sustainable businesses for the enviroment? I'm sure that will make a better impact than how much refridgeration foods need.
At least the government is trying to suggest alternatives. But if this is the standard that they are working at, maybe they should be outsourcing their green projects to the people who really know how to change the enviroment.

PSully, Canada,

More lunatic proposals from people completely devoid of common sense.

They'd make good business 'consultants' though.

Patrick, Newcastle,

While UHT skimmed milk is in general indistinguishable in taste from fresh skimmed milk the same most certainly cannot be said for semi-skimmed or full cream versions which taste disgusting.

It is not for nothing that long ago I heard UHT translated as "Ultra-Horrible Taste".

However it would undoubtedly save energy to switch. The fairly small additional energy used in the somewhat longer and higher temperature pasteurisation is recovered several times over by the savings in refrigeration between the point of pasteurisation and consumption.

Jeremy, Lincolnshire, UK

UHT milk is Ultra Heat Treated right? Therefore I am assuming it is treated with heat. How much energy is used to process this milk in the first place and what are the CO2 emissions from that processing?

Chris Card, Aylesbury, England

Was recently in Dusseldorf. Having cereal at breakfast didn't realise the milk in the jug was UHT so used the usual large amount. Took a big spoonful and then had to spit it out quick!! It was UHT and it was awful. Most embarrassing.
If they get rid of fresh milk then I'm emigrating to a country that'll still do it.

Bry Barnes, Somerset, Uk

I wonder how many emmissions are produced by the production of arms and the shipping of soldiers to and fro across to the middle east? Dont blame the dairy cut, down on politicians!

E.H, Rugby,

It is not intended that Government Ministers and Officials should drink UHT milk. They will continue to have fresh milk delivered along with their daily sherry ration.

David, Andorra La Vella, Andorra

Why do politicians such as Mr Ainsworth make sweeping generalisations such as "people in this country don't like UHT milk"? How does he know? I don't drink milk on its own, and I tend to prefer fresh milk in tea. Otherwise, though, I have no problem with UHT, and there is always a supply in our house in case the fresh runs out. There would be more, but at present it tends to cost more. Perhaps we have it the wrong way round. We should think ourselves lucky to have fresh milk so freely available. In some countries, in Asia for example, it can be hard to find - so much land needs to be given over to rice production that dairy herds are few.

Barry, Wallington, UK

I was lucky enough to belong to the generation of children who received milk at primary school. This 'proposal' has me as irate and upset as the day my teacher informed me my Milk Monitor duties were over! No one likes UHT and no one wants it.

I suppose the next step Is fresh bacon being replaced by biltong?

It seems these people are intent on burying the nation's farmers.

I wonder how much this ill conceived scheme has cost to date and how the money spent could have been more usefully used.

Is it really April 1st?

R, Wiltshire, England

UHT milk, cream and other products are perfectly acceptable to all but the most snobbish foodies in my view. What is wrong with the British... a nation of un-pasteurized whingers?

Ian Melvin, Blackpool, UK

If they want to cut energy from supermarket chillers, why don't they limit ready meals? If people learnt to cook again it might help prevent the obesity epidemic, instead of foisting UHT milk on those of us who would only use it when camping.

Ali, Alston,

When are these people going to stop trying to tell us what to eat and drink. UHT milk is not at all pleasant to drink.
If you want to save energy - stop stores from refrigerating the entire shop. Several of our local supermakets are so cold you have to put extra clothes on to shop there, even in the winter.
Much of the produce (fruit and veg in particular) is over cooled to the point when you get it home it is perished and rotten in hours after warming up to normal room temperatures.
Many of the instore display units also spill out the cold air to the detriment of the shopper. These should be made more efficient with lower losses.

R Trowsdale, Chessington,

absolute nonense, if this is the GB vison, where is that voting paper!

HJM, Ringwood,

When the government stopped the green top milk deliveries, I stopped the deliveries. The milkman lost out to 1,460 pints of milk a year. I then bought untreated milk from a local farm. I have tried blind trials and picked out Sterilised ,homogenised, Pasteurised, or UHT milk every time, & all are disgusting. If I remember correctly, green top milk was banned because 1 farm worker died of Brucellosis. A very, very rare thing for a human to catch anyway.
Since the new owners of the farm I got my milk from do not sell milk by the carton, I can only have milk 4 times a year, when my SIL goes to visit his family in Devon. The nearest supplier of untreated milk is too far away as I don't drive, but it would be insane for me to add to pollution by going by car every 2 days to pick up my milk anyway. I say NO to UHT. Give me back my green top

Beryl, WINDSOR, England

How many people have tried it recently? It may be mildly different (though I dispute this) but it isn't "bad." The French brand Candia's semi-skimmed milk actually tastes really creamy despite being 2% fat and I genuinely prefer it. (And unlike the unrecyclable Tetra-paks it comes in plastic bottles.) I think the enironmental argument is a little ridiculous and I agree with Kevin from Dundee's sentiments in many ways that this is but the lastest example of our being hectored by bureaucrats. But, on convenience alone, the ability to buy litres and litres at a time is worthwhile. An added bonus is that it is cheaper too. People may be confusing UHT milk with those nasty little things at motorway service stations, or experiences from years ago. There may be reasons to prefer fresh, but in 2007, taste is no longer one of them.

Alex Johnson, London, UK

I think it's a good move. Milk takes up refrigration space that could be used for beer.

Niel Malan, Bronkhorstspruit, South Africa

They obviously don't have to shop in supermarkets or convenvience stores themselves. Our local Tesco has one aisle of fresh milk and dairy products and at least 6 aisles of chilled and 4 aisles of frozen food. Our corner shop uses about 20% of fridge capacity on milk, the rest is for fizzy drinks, beer, etc.
Why not ban pre-made food and save even more carbon credits? Or perhaps tax fizzy drinks?

Sarah N., London, UK

Get rid of Defra AND all their works and pomps

Fred Powell, Alicante, Spain

And what about the method to get UHT milk i.e. heating it!! Does this not in itself produce emissions?
Yet again another pathetic idea from the UK, glad I left! (Ex Pat)

Mrs Ess, Madrid, Spain

How much extra CO2 will be released from the heating process to produce UHT in the first place?

The Government should be doing all it can to protect local dairy farms, as their loss will just add more "food miles" to the supply chain, and even more carbon emissions.

ST 1, Rayleigh, England

Why not get round the problem of shops having to refrigerate milk by delivering it to households in reusable bottles by electric van?

Jake Nelson, Kelmscott, UK

UHT milk makes tea and coffee taste really unpleasant. OK for cooking though. My family's milk consumption will certainly drop if UHT milk is all that is available.. I lived in France for several years and it was noticeable how at the times of year when Brits were there on holiday shops ran out of fresh milk very quickly.

It's another if these ill thought out bureaucratic decisions.

Filey, Scarborough, England

Yippee - More room in the mega-fridge for the (fresh) cream cakes and (non-organic) champagne!

Huw Sayer, Norwich, England

Not least that UHT processess require more energy for heating and cooling. So where are the savings I wonder.

Alan, Midlands,

Have the members of Defra or whatever actually tasted longlife milk. Its disgusting.

sylvia glenister, Auckland, New Zealand

My fridge will be switched on regardless of the fact it has milk in or not. I need some way to keep my beer cold!!!!

tony, northants,

Hmmm have people not got taste-buds???
When I was a child I had the good fortune to grow up with unpasteurised milk from my Grandparents dairy farm - now when visiting France I try and get Lait Cru because the taste is so much better than the bland pasteurised milk. Uht milk is not worth consuming in my view and it would drastically cut down my consumption.
What is next , all cheese to be pasteurised like in America?
What is needed is a culture shift to local seasonal produce and less food miles - the so called "Slow Food" movement is the way forward not boiling everything till it is dead and tasteless!

Angus Bell, Guisborough, UK

UHT milk is horrible. I would rather go without than drink it and I think most people would. It may not taste so foul in strong flavoured continental coffee but it is nasty in a decent cup of tea and totally unpalatable on its own or on cereal.
I suggest a return to beer for breakfast. This will enhance the trade of local breweries and promote hop and barley growing. Children can drink small beer. If it was good enough for the Tudors it is good enough for me.

CA Metcalfe, Essex,

Maybe "so -called officials" from the Dept of the Enviroment should have their hot air emissions reduced as they are spouting hot air from all their collective orifices

John Burrows, Cobble Hill, Canada

I don't know how UHT milk is produced but the name (Ultra-Heat) suggests that a lot of energy has to be used. I wonder if this has be taken into account by DEFRA when they made their calculations?

Pat Thornton, Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria

UHT milk is disgusting and it ruins the taste of everything it is used for. Surely there are other areas where environmental impact can be reduced.

What I don't like about this proposal is that it looks as if it has been picked out of a hat rather than as part of a well considered strategy on the environment.

If someone comes up with evidence that this is a priority to help the environment, I will drink my UHT milk.

J, London,

where will this maddness end.

Kevin Law, Dundee, UK