Catalogue description Records of Milk and Milk Products

Milk and Milk Products Divisions

A Dairy Branch was established by the Board of Agriculture in 1918 and between the wars, when it was attached to the Education Division, it dealt with dairying matters generally. These included technical questions relating to all forms of dairying education, preliminary action in encouraging co-operative efforts on the part of producers of milk and milk products and administration of the ministry's experimental arable dairy holdings. Milk Marketing developed from the work of the Milk Advisory Committee and the Central Council of Milk Recording Societies into the Milk Marketing Scheme of 1933 and was given guaranteed price support by the Milk Act 1934.

The Milk and Milk Products Division was formed on the amalgamation in 1955 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and the Ministry of Food taking over from the latter responsibility for policy on milk production, supply and consumption, the milk trade and prices, hygiene and quality control in dairies, the administration of the Milk and Dairies Regulations in wholesale and retail premises and the operation of the milk guarantee through the Milk Marketing Board, and also the work of its Welfare Foods Branch which procured and oversaw the distribution via the ministry's regional offices of foods included in the Welfare Food Scheme (eg milk and dried milk for pregnant women). These functions passed to the Ministry of Health in 1955, after which time the ministry acted only to procure foods to be distributed under the scheme.

The division was also responsible for arranging the manufacture and packing of dried milk powder under the National Dried Milk Scheme. The original scheme was replaced by new arrangements, agreed with manufacturers and packers, which covered the production, packing and distribution of National Dried Milk, including coding, examination and analysis of the powder and contracts with manufacturers. Contracts were let on a tender basis from 1 April 1955. It also took over the work of the Livestock Division relating to the administration of the Milk and Dairies Regulations on farm premises. These dated from 1885 but their enforcement was not taken over by the ministry from local authorities until 1940. The division administered the National Milk Testing Service, which was set up in 1942 as the National Milk Testing and Advisory Scheme and was run by the agricultural colleges and the local authorities until 1 October 1946, when its advisory functions were dropped and it was taken over by the ministry. It was responsible for much inspection, testing and advisory work in connection with the milk industry.

In 1957, the work of the Welfare Foods Branch was upgraded and the division renamed the Milk, Milk Products and Welfare Foods Division. This arrangement lasted until 1961 when the remaining functions of the Welfare Foods Branch were reallocated within the ministry, including liaison with the Education Departments over the supply of school milk, which was done by the revived Milk and Milk Products Division. When the United Kingdom joined the European Economic Community's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in 1972, questions relating to milk were also handled by the division.

The introduction of European Community milk quotas in 1984 resulted, however, in a reorganisation of the division's responsibilities and the formation of three separate Milk and Milk Products Division. Division I dealt with milk production, consumption, trade and prices and the CAP. Division II handled domestic milk policy, the Milk Marketing Scheme, health and hygiene matters for milk and milk products and the Importation of Milk Regulations. Division III was formed to oversee the introduction of milk production quotas in the United Kingdom, including the Milk Quota Supplementary Levy, the outgoers scheme and the Dairy Produce Quotas Tribunal, and in 1985 its functions were absorbed into Division I, Division III being abolished. In 1989-1990, Division I was renamed the Milk (European Community) Division, and Division II was renamed the Milk Marketing Division, though the functions of the divisions remained basically unchanged. In 1990 the two divisions were merged to form the third incarnation of a single Milk and Milk Products Division, which became the Milk, Pig, Eggs and Poultry Division in 1996.

In 1992, a separate Milk Marketing and Legislation Division was established to oversee and manage the revocation of the United Kingdom's Milk Marketing Schemes and the abolition of the Milk Marketing Board, at which time responsibility for these schemes was removed from the Milk and Milk Products Division. Following the establishment of Milk Marque in place of the board, the Milk Marketing and Legislation Division was abolished in 1995.