On February 20, 2006, on behalf of the Gardiner Foundation, Richard Nasra also hosted a presentation in Melbourne's Parliament House to a gathering of Victorian dairy farmers titled:

Paul Ford, Chief Executive, Gardiner Foundation The Hon Bob Cameron MP, Minister for Agriculture Richard Nasra Roy Hoult, a member of the Gardiner Foundation Steering Committee for The Milk Biscuits Project, and former CEO of Arnotts Brockoff Biscuits Professor Roger Short, The University of Melbourne

How Can Cow’s Milk Save Human Lives?

I hope you’ve all had a chance to wander past the poster and wondered what the peculiar looking biscuits with a hole in the middle could have to do with HIV prevention.

This year over 600,000 children will become infected with HIV through transmission of the virus from the mother to the child… and the majority of cases will occur in the developing world.

So how on earth could cow’s milk be used to help save their lives?

Well, we believe that the Australian Milk Biscuit could help to prevent HIV transmission from a mother to her baby.

During breastfeeding, HIV is continually excreted in the breastmilk of HIV-positive mothers, but if the mother breastfeeds exclusively, babies do not become infected.

But recent studies have shown that if the HIV-positive mother only partially breastfeeds, the amount of virus in her breastmilk rises, significantly, greatly increasing the child’s chances of becoming infected with HIV.

Therefore, the WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION recommends that all mothers should exclusively breastfeed for the first 6 months if breastmilk substitutes are neither available nor affordable. But they should then wean abruptly and avoid partially breastfeeding their babies, which puts them at risk of HIV infection.

But what weaning food could these mothers use?

The answer could be the Australian Milk Biscuit.

So what is the milk biscuit?

Essentially, it is a high protein, calorie-dense and fortified ready-to-use biscuit designed for nutritional support and supplementation. The milk biscuit also has a long shelf life and best of all, comes ready-to-eat straight from the pack anytime and anywhere – which is one of the main reasons why the Australian Milk Biscuit is so appealing!

I have just returned from Ethiopia were I completed an acceptability trial on 145 young HIV-positive children in an orphanage. The biscuits were well accepted by the children and in just 3 months, we could see an improvement in their growth.

Currently, we are planning a further trial, perhaps closer to home in the Pacific area, to see if the biscuits could be used as a rapid weaning food after abrupt weaning, to reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

The Australian Milk Biscuit also has a huge potential for use as a famine and disaster relief food. They would also be invaluable for post-tsunami relief, or the more recent earthquake in Pakistan, and any other case where people are suddenly deprived of their sources of protein and other nutrients.

So, Australian Milk Biscuits could be ‘life-savers’ around the world. They even have a hole in the middle, just like the candy!

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN……… EAT MORE MILK!