According to icWales, the best source for Welsh news, the latest food fad to hit Wales is… RAW milk.

Sold in green-topped bottles, farm shops in Wales are said to be reporting a sharp increases in sales.

Steve Oultram, who owns Newbridge Farm Shop in Ewloe, was cited as saying that his family had been selling raw milk for more than 50 years, but had noticed that it had become more popular recently.

He was quoted as saying, “There’s no doubt that the demand for raw milk is increasing all the time as more people are made aware of it. We have people coming here from considerable distances … We’ve even started sending it out through mail order because of the demand.”

Mr Oultram was further cited as saying that some of his customers had used the milk to help them combat illnesses. “One person who used to come to us had quite an advanced cancer. She said that the milk was helping so much that she wasn’t having to take as much medicine. And another guy has been buying it for his son who has bad eczema, and he’s said that it’s made a tremendous difference.”

The story notes that there have been reports raw milk could be banned in Wales and England – as it has been in Scotland for more than 20 years. Legislation introduced in January this year means that Welsh retailers of raw milk must now have a licence, as well as carry a warning on the bottle that the milk is not pasteurised. Also, they are also forced by the Food Standards Agency to have a sample of the milk tested every three months to check that it contains no harmful bacteria.

With proper testing, it may be possible to offer a safe, unpasteurized product to the consuming public. But the onus is on producers to show the rest of us that data. Adults, do whatever you think works, but please, don’t impose your dietary regimes on your kids. For a summary of raw milk outbreaks click here.