Arla Foods has pledged to continue with its trial of methane-supressing animal feed additive Bovaer and insisted it is safe, following calls to boycott its products over the past week.
The dairy co-op announced a trial of the use of Bovaer on 30 of its UK farms on 26 November, in collaboration with retail partners Morrisons, Aldi and Tesco via its new Future Dairy Partnership initiative – which feeds into its plans to reduce CO2e emissions by 30% per kilo of milk by 2030.
The trial of the additive, made by Dutch/Swiss life sciences company DSM-Firmenich, would potentially pave the way for Arla to rollout across a larger group of farmers, said Arla, and had the potential to reduce methane emissions from cows by 27% on average.
But the announcement created a social media storm – with thousands of people on the X platform calling for a boycott of Arla products amid claims the additive could be unsafe, and some also linking the product to wider conspiracy theories centring on Bill Gates, the World Economic Forum and climate change denial. Some of Arla’s rivals, from Grahams The Family Dairy to Yeo Valley, have also distanced themselves from the trial on social media.
Read more: Arla says boycott calls over methane-cutting feed additive based on ‘misinformation’
Arla last week responded to the outcry – which has also spread to traditional media – by stressing the boycott calls were based on “misinformation”.
“Bovaer has already been extensively and safely used across Europe and at no point during the trial will there be any impact on the milk we produce as it does not pass from the cow into the milk,” a spokesperson insisted, adding the supplement had been approved by the likes of the FSA and the European Food Safety Authority.
It this week reinforced this position and said it would continue with its trial, amid a continuation of the controversy, saying Bovaer “has been researched for 15 years and is currently used in 29 countries around the world”.
It added: “As one of the biggest food producers in the UK, Arla Foods is committed to providing high quality dairy and we would never compromise on the safety of our products.
“The science tells us that it is both proven safe for consumers and effective in reducing emissions, which is why the project is taking place across 30 Arla farms. Together with our farmer owners, this is an important part of our efforts to bring down the carbon footprint of the food we produce.”
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