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A2 milk is cow's milk that contains only the A2 type of beta-casein protein rather than the more prevalent A1 protein found in regular milk. The milk is claimed to offer major health benefits for people who otherwise suffer from dietary intolerance to milk and other dairy products due to the release during digestion of A1 milk of a peptide known as BCM7. The BCM7 peptide has been linked in studies with digestive and allergy problems that are commonly misdiagnosed as lactose intolerance. It has also been linked with higher rates of type-1 diabetes and autism, heightened risk of heart disease and delayed psychomotor development in infants.

The milk of humans, sheep and goats contains only the A2 protein and it is believed that all cow's milk was also originally A2 until a mutation developed several thousand years ago, which introduced the A1 beta-casein protein into human diets. While cattle from Africa and Asia continue to produce A2 milk, a significant proportion of European-bred cattle produce milk that is A1 or a blend of both A1 and A2 proteins. The export of European cattle over past centuries has resulted in herds in many western countries including Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States containing a mixture of A1 and A2-producing cows, with the result that most brands of milk in western countries contain both A1 and A2 proteins.

The first milk certified to be exclusively from A2 cows went on sale in Australia in 2003 and since then has been sold in New Zealand, China, the United States and the UK, and there are plans to broaden its distribution in the North American market in late 2014. The production of solely A2 milk can be achieved only by genetically testing dairy cattle herds to determine the protein they carry, then separating and breeding those herds and milking them separately. A2 milk is considered a niche product and usually sells for a higher retail price than mainstream milk. In Australia, where A2 milk has been sold since 2007, sales have grown rapidly and by early 2014 A2 Milk Company products accounted for 8 per cent of all milk sales.

The popularity of A2 milk in Australia, and the spread of claims of its benefits over traditional A1 milk, has prompted a vigorous campaign by rival companies to downplay claims of its benefits. In March 2014 international dairy giant Parmalat, whose Australian brands have suffered from lower sales partly due to A2's popularity, accused A2 of misleading advertising and scare tactics. Two months later it was revealed that Parmalat had hired lobby firm Crosby Textor to use news media to discredit the science that underpins claims of A2's benefits. Both Parmalat and Lion have taken steps to win back buyers—Lion relabelled its Pura milk brand to state that it "naturally contains A2 protein" while Parmalat relaunched its lactose-free Zymil brand to target consumers suffering "tummy troubles" from normal milk.

Claims about the perceived health risks of A1 milk have been disputed by some scientists.

Background

Cows' milk is a complex liquid that is about 87 percent water and 13 percent solids—the solids being a combination of fat, carbohydrates in the form of lactose, minerals and protein. The major component of the milk proteins is casein; in turn about 30-35 percent of the casein (equivalent to two teaspoons in a litre of milk) is beta-casein, of which there are several varieties, determined by the genes of the cow. The most common of these variants are A1 and A2 (named for the order in which they were identified by scientists), with the sole difference between the two being one of the 209 amino acids that make up the beta-casein proteins: in a complex sequence of those amino acids, a proline occurs at position 67 in A2 beta-casein, while in A1 beta-casein a histidine occurs at that position. Scientists believe the difference originated as a mutation that occurred between 5000 and 10,000 years ago—as cattle were being taken north into Europe—when the proline at position 67 was replaced by histidine, with the mutation subsequently spreading widely throughout herds in the western world through breeding.

During digestion, the A1 beta-casein produces a peptide of a string of seven amino acids called beta-casomorphin-7, or BCM7. The BCM7 peptide is not produced during digestion of A2 milk. The existence of casomorphins—so-called because they are derived from casein and have opioid or narcotic properties, similar to morphine—was first reported by German scientists in 1979.

The prevalence of the A1 and A2 beta-casein protein varies between herds of cattle, and also between countries and provinces. While African and Asian cattle continue to produce only A2 beta-casein, the A1 version of the protein is common among cattle in the western world. In Australia some cattle produce only A2 or A1, while many produce both A1 and A2 beta-casein in equal amounts in their milk. In normal milk in Australia, the milk protein ratio is about 60 per cent A2 and 40 percent A1. On average, more than 70 percent of Guernsey cows produce A2 milk, while among Holsteins and Ayrshires between 46 and 70 percent produce A1 milk.

Human milk, as well as that from goats and sheep, are free of A1 beta-casein.

Health concerns over A1 beta-casein

Early discoveries (1979—2003)

As early as 1979 psychology Professor Jaak Panskepp of Bowling Green State University in Ohio had suggested a link between autism and opioids in foods. Two years later Norwegian doctor Kalle Reichelt and colleagues traced the origin of the opioids to the incomplete breakdown of certain foods, including those containing casein and gluten. Animal studies by Swedish scientists in 1987 also focused on BCM7 as a cause of apnoea that was analogous to sudden infant death syndrome in humans. In 1990 Paul Shattock from the University of Sunderland reported on the role of neuropeptides in autism, producing evidence that many of the symptoms of autism and schizophrenia are related to diet and the way humans metabolise foods, again identifying the key involvement of casein and gluten. In a series of papers from 1999, teams led by Professor Robert Cade and Dr Zhongjie Sun of the University of Florida began reporting findings of a link between BCM7 and autism and schizophrenia. Cade, then unaware that BCM7 was produced only from A1 milk, conducted no tests to seek any differentiation with A2 milk.

Interest in the distinction between A1 and A2 beta-casein proteins began in 1993 with research by Bob Elliott, Professor of Child Health at New Zealand's Auckland University, into the incidence of type 1 diabetes among Samoan children. He found a very low incidence in those living in Samoa, but discovered that Samoan children living in New Zealand were very susceptible to the disease. Suspecting it might be related to their consumption of milk, which was much lower in Samoa, he conferred with Dr Jeremy Hill, the chief protein chemist at the NZ Dairy Board Research Institute, who suggested the beta-casein proteins of milk could be implicated. Hill then assisted Elliott in conducting both epidemiological and animal studies to test the hypothesis. In a study of mice that had been bred with a susceptibility to diabetes, Elliott found that after 250 days, 47 percent of mice fed A1 beta-casein were diabetic but the incidence was zero in those fed A2 beta-casein. He also found that feeding naloxone—a drug that blocks the narcotic effects of opiods—with the A1 beta-casein nullified the effect, suggesting the adverse effects of the A1 beta-casein were strongly linked to the opioid characteristics of BCM7. Elliott also found a strong correlation between the incidence of diabetes and the intake of A1 milk in selected countries.

In 1994 New Zealand scientist Dr Corran McLachlan, who had a strong interest in heart disease, was asked to peer review Elliott's findings and was struck by the strong correlation between the incidence of type 1 diabetes and heart disease in the countries Elliott had chosen for his study. The focus on A1 beta-casein prompted McLachlan to redirect his own research, convinced it was a major health issue and he spent the next five years documenting the intake of A1 and A2 beta-caseins in different countries to further examine the possibility of A1 milk's contribution to those diseases. In a 2001 peer-reviewed paper in Medical Hypotheses he reported a very high correlation between A1 beta-casein consumption and deaths from coronary heart disease in 17 developed countries. He also noted that despite having very high milk consumption, the Masai and Samburu people of Kenya are "essentially free" of heart disease: in both cases the milk they drink is 100 percent A2. The highest rate of heart disease in his analysis was in Finland, where there is a very high intake of A1 beta-casein.

A further epidemiological study by Elliott, this time with New Zealand researcher Dr Murray Laugesen as the lead author, was published in the New Zealand Medical Journal in 2003. The study examined the incidence of coronary heart disease in 20 developed nations to test the correlation with intake of A1 beta-casein and 77 other food types as well as alcohol and tobacco smoking. It found a very high level of association between coronary heart disease and A1 beta-casein, far above correlations with any other food type or activity, including smoking.

By then the New Zealand Dairy Research Institute—later to become part of Fonterra—had applied for two patents concerning the adverse health consequences of A1 milk. The first, granted in 1997 and jointly owned by the Dairy Board and the Child Health Research Foundation, related to a method of testing milk for A1 beta-casein, which the patent application said was implicated in type 1 diabetes. The second, in 2001, linked A1 beta-casein with autism and schizophrenia. The 2001 patent application, based on unpublished research by the NZDRI, included findings that milk with A1 beta-casein "may on digestion cause the release of an opioid which may induce or aggravate a neurological/mental disorder such as autism or Asperger's syndrome". It was partly based on findings that unusually high levels of BCM7 were found in the urine of autistic children who had been given A1 milk—levels 10 times higher than those who had been given A2 milk. Research by other teams had also reported similar findings, suggesting sufferers of autism have an impaired digestive system, often described as a "leaky gut", enabling the peptide to cross the intestinal wall and enter the bloodstream. The patent application also reported a correlation between consumption of A1 beta-caseins and high death rates attributable to mental disorders. It noted that A2 beta-casein does not aggravate mental health disorders. The patent application was later abandoned.

More significant findings were reported by Professor Julie Campbell, a cardiovascular specialist at the University of Queensland, in 2003. From a study of 60 rabbits fed a high diet containing high amounts of either A1 or A2 milk, she concluded that A1 beta-casein "is most definitely atherogenic", greatly heightening the risk of heart disease. She also reported that rabbits fed the A1 beta-casein had "much higher" serum cholesterol levels than those on an A2 diet.

Further research (2004-current)

Issues surrounding the global findings on A1 and A2 milk gained wide publicity with the publication in September 2007 of a book by Professor Keith Woodford, Professor of Farm Management and Agribusiness at Lincoln University in New Zealand. Devil in the Milk related how Woodford's initial scepticism about A2 milk turned into a conviction that BCM7 was implicated in a wide range of serious health problems. It detailed the findings of dozens of scientists working in diverse disciplines over several decades as well as what Woodford claimed was attempts by vested interests to mould and withhold scientific evidence.

Italian researcher Ivano De Noni, who co-authored a 2009 European Food Safety Authority review of research on beta-casomorphins, presented evidence in a 2008 paper that BCM7, although not found directly in milk or infant formula, was released from A1 milk—but not A2—in laboratory conditions that reproduced human digestive processes. He also found BCM7 was released from the B variant of beta-casein—which, like A1, has a histidine at position 67 in the string of amino acids that make up the protein—and at higher levels than from A1. A 2010 paper by De Noni showed that BCM7 is released from cheese and yoghurt as well as milk.

A Russian team of 12 scientists led by Natalya Kost made a breakthrough in 2009 by developing for the first time tests for measuring BCM7 in the blood. The team showed that babies fed formula milk absorb BCM7 into their blood, and that while some can eliminate it rapidly—either by metabolising it or excreting it—other babies retain it in the bloodstream. It found that those unable to rapidly break down and excrete BCM7 suffer delayed development of the neurological links from brain to muscle, placing them at high risk of delayed psychomotor development.

In a paper presented at a 2009 international symposium on atherosclerosis, a Czech research team led by Alexandra Steinerova revealed evidence that focused on oxidative stress and oxidative LDL, which are key risk factors and indicators of heart disease and an important indicator of Alzheimer's disease. Their studies since 1999 had found that in the first few months of age, babies fed on milk formula had increasing levels of antibodies to oxidised LDL—by three months of age some had 18 times the levels of those in breast-fed babies—as well as very high antibodies to BCM7 and A1 beta-casein. They were also able to prove cause and effect in a study of piglets that were fed either A1 beta-casein or A2 beta-casein: much higher levels of antibodies to oxidised LDL were found in those fed with A1 beta-casein. Woodford commented that although babies did not get heart disease, the finding strongly suggested that adults with a leaky gut, and who therefore absorbed BCM7 into the bloodstream, were at much greater risk of oxidative LDL, providing a "solid mechanism capable of explaining the link between BCM7 and heart disease".

In 2013 a study of mice in India comparing the effect of A1 and A2 beta-caseins found consumption of A1 beta-caseins induced an inflammatory response in the gut and researchers warned that if the findings were replicated by further research, "it will be imperative to minimize (A1 milk's) risk globally by reducing its production through sound breeding policies".

A 2014 New Zealand study of rats found that consumption of A1 beta-caseine caused a significant delay in the movement of milk through the stomach and intestines compared with A2 beta-caseine, possibly extending the length of time in which peptides could produce an adverse effect.

A2 milk digestive benefits

There is anecdotal evidence that A2 milk can offer significant benefits for those who have suffered digestive problems drinking normal milk. An Australian dietitian, Elena Oswald, told the Sydney Morning Herald that patients had reported marked changes once they had switched to A2 milk: "I've seen improvements in patients with gastrointestial pain and discomfort as well as constipation and diarrhoea."

A2 Dairy Products Australia chief executive Peter Nathan said many people who believed they were lactose-intolerant were able to consume A2 milk without adverse reaction, suggesting lactose was not the problem. "Our research has found that 25 per cent of people identify themselves as intolerant to dairy, but only about 5 per cent of those are actually diagnosed as lactose-intolerant, so we think the rest are reacting to A1," he said. A Victorian dairy farmer, Peter Mulcahy, reported that three of his five children had suffered lifelong adverse reactions to milk, with one daughter suffering a rash, major digestive problems and commonly vomiting within 10 minutes of consuming milk or ice cream. Mulcahy said his daughter had tried A2 milk and could now drink it freely without any adverse reaction, although contact with conventional milk, in cheese or ice cream, still made her sick.

A2 milk marketed by the A2 Milk Company also contains no permeates, a watery, greenish waste product from the production of cheese that is added to many brands of milk, constituting up to 16 per cent of a container of milk by volume.

Woodford has reported that parents of autistic children claim the symptoms of autism have diminished when their milk intake is restricted to A2.

Commercial production and sale

The creation of a simple but conclusive DNA test method to check the A1/A2 status of cows paved the way for the commercial production of A2 milk. The test, patented by the then A2 Corporation Ltd of New Zealand, is carried out on hairs plucked from the cow's tail. Those identified as having A2A2 alleles are tagged and milked separated, with the milk regularly audited to ensure the absence of A1 beta-casein. A2 cows are also mated with A2 bulls, or artificially inseminated using semen from A2 bulls, to ensure the herd produces only A2 milk, with herd conversion times varying from three months to seven years, depending on the percentage of the herd that is already A2 and how aggressively the farmer wishes to make a change.

Australia, New Zealand

In 2001 the A2 Corporation granted an exclusive licence to a distribution and marketing company, New Zealand Dairy Foods, to put A2 milk on New Zealand supermarket shelves by February 2002. When NZDF failed to achieve its goal, A2 issued non-exclusive local licences to several small to medium-sized dairy producers. In early 2003 a New South Wales dairy farmer and processor, Phil Denniston, began producing Fairbrae Jersey Gold A2 milk under license from A2 Corporation—the first time A2 milk had been retailed anywhere in the world. In April 2003 A2 milk became available in New Zealand, from Klondyke Dairies in Christchurch and Ridge Natural Foods in Hamilton.

In 2004 A2 Corporation licensed a second Australian company, A2 Dairy Marketers Pty Ltd, which signed up six Queensland dairy farms to supply it, with the aim of eventually marketing A2 milk Australia-wide. In September 2004 A2 Dairy Marketers was placed into receivership and A2 Corporation's Australian subsidiary, A2 Australia Pty Ltd, took over its marketing and distribution role. The Australian subsidiary was sold in 2005 to Singapore food and beverage company Fraser and Neave and by the end of the year A2 milk was available in more than 600 supermarkets and convenience stores in mainland Australia, with weekly sales of about 100,000 litres. In April 2006 A2 Corporation bought A2 Australia Pty Ltd back from Fraser and Neave. In May 2007 A2 Corporation launched a joint venture with listed company Freedom Nutritional Products to develop the Australian and Japanese markets and by 2013 the renamed Freedom Foods Group Ltd had become the A2 Corporation's biggest single shareholder, with an 18 percent stake in the company. In April 2014 the A2 Corporation changed its name to The a2 Milk Company Ltd.

By 2010 some 40 million litres of A2 milk was being produced by 12,000 A2-certified cows across Australia, with milk processed at four plants in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland; in 2014 the a2 Milk Company said its milk was sourced from 28 A2-certified farms throughout Australia. Yoghurt made with A2 milk went on the market in Australia in April 2010 under the Jalna brand. A2's premium infant formula brand, Platinum, was launched in New Zealand and Australia in September 2013 and A2 thickened cream was launched in January 2014.

United States

A2 Corporation formed a partnership with a US company, A2 Milk Company LLC, in 2005 to develop the North American market and in April 2007 A2 milk was launched in seven midwestern states by The Original Foods Company through the Hy-Vee supermarket chain. In December 2008 the A2 Milk Company announced it was withdrawing product from sale pending a rebranding and relaunch on a broader scale across the US.

United Kingdom

A2 Corporation formed a joint venture with a major British biggest milk supplier, Müller Wiseman Dairies, in November 2011 to process, market and sell its A2 milk products in Britain and Ireland. In June 2014 a2 Milk Company reported it had 20 dedicated farms supplying milk for processing in the UK. In its first year the milk recorded ₤1 million in sales through 1000 stores.

China

In April 2012 A2 Corporation announced New Zealand dairy processor Synlait Milk would manufacture A2 brand milk powders and infant formulas. The company appointed a Shanghai company as the exclusive Chinese distributor of its new Platinum infant formula brand in April 2013 and two consignments were sent that year. A2 Corporation said it expected to be generating annual sales of NZ$60 million in China by 2016. Consignments were halted in May 2014 after the Chinese government introduced strict new import regulations for infant formula that required exporters to apply for registration and demonstrate a close association between brand owner and manufacturer. The new regulations were a response to the 2008 Chinese milk scandal in which more than 300,000 infants were poisoned by contaminated milk formula. Synlait announced in May 2014 it had failed to gain registration because a new $21 million laboratory and canning facility was still under construction in Canterbury. A2 Milk Company also missed out on registration, but the company said its Chinese distribution partner held sufficient levels of inventory of A2 Platinum infant formula to meet consumer demand.

Consumer demographics

The a2 Milk Company describes its typical customer as health conscious, more optimistic, younger and with a high disposable income. In the first three months of the Australian supermarket "milk war" of 2011, in which rival supermarket companies Coles and Woolworths cut the price of home brand milk to $1 a litre, A2 milk recorded an 8 percent growth in sales.

Criticism and controversy

Findings about the adverse effects of A1 beta-casein proteins have been disputed by some scientists. The New Zealand Food Safety Authority has dismissed a scientist's cautions about A1 milk contained in a report it commissioned, and asserted that A1 milk has no food safety issue. Dairy Australia has denied there is evidence to suggest A1 proteins are dangerous and has warned that criticism of normal milk is damaging the entire dairy industry.

Strong sales growth by A2 milk has also prompted a reaction by rival brands, which have accused the a2 Milk Company of running a scare campaign against normal milk. Rival companies have also rebranded products to highlight the presence of A2 proteins in their milk. In 2014 it was claimed international diary giant Parmalat had hired a prominent spin doctor firm to plant a series of stories in Australian news media to damage the A2 Milk brand. In May 2014 the Lion conglomerate's Pura milk brand was relabelled in South Australia to state that it "naturally contains A2 protein". The company said it was responding to consumer demand and that its milk's protein would be guaranteed to be between 50 and 70 percent A2. The labelling would be rolled out nationwide if successful.

New Zealand Food Safety Authority

In January 2003 the New Zealand Food Safety Authority, responding to a series of scientific papers suggesting links between A1 beta-casein consumption and heart disease and type 1 diabetes, initiated an inquiry into the issues surrounding A1 and A2 milk and enlisted Professor Boyd Swinburn, of the School of Health Sciences at Deakin University, to undertake a review of available information. Swinburn delivered a draft review, including a two-page lay summary—written in non-technical language for the general public—to the NZFSA in July 2003 for peer review. In August 2004 the NZFSA published the 43-page report without the lay summary, and accompanied by a media release that concluded there was "no food safety issue with either type of milk" and that there was "insufficient evidence to demonstrate benefits of one type of milk over another". In a television interview an NZFSA executive said Swinburn's review "confirms our advice that it is very safe to drink any milk that's in the marketplace, A1 or A2." The NZFSA refused to release the lay summary but later relented after questions were asked in the New Zealand Parliament. Only then was it revealed that Swinburn had cautioned:

"The A1/A2 hypothesis is both intriguing and potentially very important for public health if it is proved correct. It should be taken seriously and further research is needed ... Changing dairy herds to more A2 producing cows may significantly improve public health, if the A1/A2 hypothesis is proved correct, and it is highly unlikely to do harm ... As a matter of individual choice, people may wish to reduce or remove A1 beta-casein from their diet (or their children's diet) as a precautionary measure. This may be particularly relevant for those individuals who have or are at risk of the diseases mentioned (Type 1 diabetes, coronary heart disease, autism and schizophrenia)."

Swinburn wrote that it was "abundantly clear that much more research is needed ... although it is acknowledged that the vested commercial interests in the research and its outcomes sdds a major complicating factor". Professor Keith Woodford has claimed the NZFSA predetermined the outcome of the Swinburn review, ignoring Swinburn's statement about uncertainty over risks and claiming there was certainty that risks were absent. Woodford says the NZFSA has conflicting roles of protecting public health and facilitating export markets for New Zealand foods and claims the organisation engaged in a campaign of sustained misinformation on the Swinburn report. In 2008 Swinburn, who described the evidence as "very suggestive but certainly not conclusive", sent an open letter to the New Zealand media and farmers, urging the dairy industry to convert its herds to A2 immediately because of health concerns about A1 beta-casein.

Truswell review

A 2005 review by University of Sydney Professor of Human Nutrition Stewart Truswell examined published evidence linking milk consumption with type 1 diabetes and coronary heart disease and asserted that "there is no convincing or even probable evidence that the A1 beta-casein of cow milk has any adverse effect in humans". In his paper, published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrution, Truswell dismissed as "unreliable" the between-country method of searching for correlations between A1 beta-casein consumption and the incidence of diabetes and coronary heart disease, and he said animal experiments that led to warnings about A1 milk were not confirmed by later, bigger experiments.

In 2009 a New Zealand newspaper revealed that Truswell, despite presenting himself as independent, had previously been paid as a consultant by major dairy co-operative Fonterra, a commercial rival of the A2 Corporation, and had also been a principal scientific witness for Fonterra in court battles against the A2 Corporation over a patent application. The newspaper quoted Professor Keith Woodford, who said Truswell's review was "very partisan and selective in the evidence he presented"; Woodford also claimed that had Truswell declared his former links with Fonterra "what he wrote and the tone of it would have been subjected to some greater scrutiny" by those who had peer-reviewed the article. In 2010, in an updated reprint of his Devil in the Milk book, Woodford claimed Truswell's report contained factual errors and faulty reasoning, had brushed aside the findings of legitimate studies and ignored evidence in relation to BCM7's links to autism and schizophrenia. Woodford also claimed Truswell had ignored evidence that a key multinational study of possible links between A1 beta-casein and diabetes had been seriously compromised by the contamination of diets of the animal subjects, yet continued to praise its findings as the final word on the subject.

European Food Safety Authority

Despite Swinburn's urgings in 2004 that more clinical research be supported by New Zealand government agencies, Health Minister Lianne Dalziel said in 2008 that the NZFSA had no mandate or facility to sponsor clinical research itself. Instead it backed an upcoming European Food Safety Authority review of existing scientific studies on possible adverse health effects of A1 milk. In a letter to his counterpart at EFSA, the NZFSA executive director Andrew McKenzie cautioned that definitive identification of A1 beta-casein as a risk factor in disease would depend on further research, especially independent human trials. New Zealand public health scientist Dr Murray Laugesen, who had co-authored research into A1 and A2 milk in 2003, warned the EFSA review would achieve little: "It's like washing the same clothes twice. The main purpose seems to be to get NZFSA off the hook, to get clarity where clarity is not possible".

The EFSA report, authored by the DATEX Working Group on beta-casomorphins, was published in February 2009 and concluded that "a cause and effect relationship is not established between the dietary intake of BCM7, related peptides or their possible protein precursors and non-communicable diseases". The report based its conclusions on reviews of studies examining possible links with SIDS, autism, atherosclerosis, cardiovascular disease and type 1 diabetes. It also expressed doubt that BCM7 could enter the bloodstream or cross the blood–brain barrier.

New Zealand's Fonterra dairy company said the report "confirmed" its position on A1 milk and said the EFSA review team had "concluded the weight of scientific evidence did not support claims that A2 milk is a healthier alternative". Woodford has criticised the report, claiming its arguments and weaknesses mirrored those of the mainstream dairy industry by accepting the findings of a flawed study in which feed had been contaminated and dismissing rabbit and ecological (between-country) studies as unreliable. Woodford also criticised the makeup of the review panel, five of whose eight members were dairy scientists with strengths in biochemistry and two of whom were trained in veterinary faculties. He said the panel should have included human health experts in heart disease, diabetes, autism, food intolerances, leaky gut, population health studies and epidemiology. Woodford says that since publication of the EFSA review, one of its co-authors, Ivano De Noni, has published papers confirming the release of BCM7 into the human digestive system after consumption of A1 milk, and reporting that none was released when A2 milk was consumed.

Dairy Australia

Dairy Australia representatives including nutrionist Malcolm Riley and risk analysis manager Robin Condron have stated that the organisation does not accept there is good evidence of any benefit of A2 over A1. Condron told the Weekly Times: "There is no good scientific evidence that A2 milk is any different to A1 milk." In 2014 Riley—now working for the government-owned CSIRIO science agency—repeated his assertion that claims about the benefits of A2 milk lacked scientific evidence. A website linked to Dairy Australia, A2milkthefacts.com, in 2014 provided a selection of quotes from Truswell, Riley and others that claims of A2 milk's benefits lacked scientific validity.

Parmalat

In May 2014 Fairfax newspapers reported that Parmalat had engaged campaign strategists Crosby Textor to try to discredit the science that underpins A2 milk produced by its rival company. The Fairfax report claimed a whistleblower had revealed that Parmalat had engaged the strategists in late 2013 after the a2 Milk Company began taking market share from Parmalat brands Pauls and PhsyiCAL milk brands. An email from Crosby Textor allegedly stated that Parmalat "want to communicate to the pubic that A2 isn't what it's cracked up to be ... that it isn't worth the money." Crosby Textor was reported to have made an unsuccessful pitch to tabloid TV show A Current Affair before turning to print media. Over a four-week period from March 2014 a series of articles attacking A2 emerged in Australian newspapers: a Sydney Sunday Telegraph article in which Parmalat accused A2 of "misleading advertising and scare tactics", an Australian Financial Review article in which a Parmalat executive claimed A2's claims of health benefits had no scientific support and that it was damaging the dairy industry, and an article in The Australian, headlined "Dairy rivals label A2 milk a scam" that described A2 claims as "snake oil salesmanship" and "a gigantic con".

Three weeks after the final story, Parmalat relaunched its Pauls Zymil brand of lactose-free milk in Australia, telling consumers it was for those suffering "uncomfortable tummy troubles" when consuming dairy.

A2 Dairy Marketers

A small Queensland start-up company, A2 Dairy Marketers Pty Ltd, licensed to market A2 milk in Australia, was fined $15,000 in the Brisbane Magistrates Court in September 2004 after it pleaded guilty to six charges involving making misleading health claims. The court found the company had breached Queensland's Food Act 1981 by suggesting in advertisements that ordinary milk was unhealthy and that A2 milk prevented childhood diabetes and heart disease. The company said it regretted making the claims, which were reported to authorities by Dairy Australia. The company went into receivership several days later.

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