“The milk that might change everything.” That’s the bold claim of a brand that will soon be sold as “a2 Milk” here in the United States. An April launch, complete with a robust amount of advertising and in-store demos, is slated for California retail outlets from Safeway and Krogers to Whole Foods.
The a2 Milk Company, a New Zealand-based firm, has trading activities in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, China, and soon, here in the U.S.
Getting back to ‘how milk used to be’
While the bold label claim seems to signal a new advance in the dairy world, company officials say that their a2 Milk is actually what milk used to be — at least in terms of beta casein proteins, which make up about 30 percent of the total protein in milk solids.
In earlier times, cows produced only the A2 protein and none produced the A1 protein. But then, about 10,000 years ago, a natural single-cell mutation occurred in dairy cows in Europe that caused them to produce the A1 beta casein protein as well.
According to the company’s website, in the 1990s, New Zealand-based scientist Dr. Corrie McLachlan learned that the A1 protein seemed to cause side effects in some people, such as bloating, irritable bowel syndrome, nausea, mucus buildup and general discomfort. Based on that discovery, he set up The a2 Milk Company.
Read full, original article: California Consumers are About to Get a Taste of ‘a2 Milk’
