Milk
Price labels of half gallons of milk for sale are seen in a store in New York April 7, 2011. Reuters/Lucas Jackson

A three-year-old boy consumed raw "bath" milk and died, and four others were left seriously ill after its consumption in early December. Following the incidents, on Dec. 28, an announcement was made that the farmers would have treat raw milk or add a taste that is bitter to it.

The announcements come under the new tough laws that have been introduced by the Victorian state government and will come into effect on New Year's Day, reported the Herald Sun. The farmers, if found breaching the rules, would be fined a sum of $17,700 in addition to having their licences cancelled.

Jane Garrett, the minister for consumer affairs, said that the changes would ensure that the products that are sold as bath milk or cosmetic milk would be made safer. She said that though there have been labels on the raw milk stating that it was not fit for human consumption, a few of the Victorians had faced a risk after drinking it.

Garrett added that the government was going to regulate the industry for the purpose of protecting consumers. She explained that the new conditions and laws would help in the protection of the Victorians from the risks of drinking raw "bath" unpasteurised milk.

According to Garrett, it was a risk particularly for young children, pregnant women as well as elderly people. She said that over the last few weeks, they had seen that a few young children had become ill after consuming raw milk and also a death of a young child because of it.

She explained that the packaging as well as the sale of the raw milk as a cosmetic product had caused confusion among the consumers. She said that the milk was often placed in containers that were the same as the containers which have drinkable milk and in a few shops, the cosmetic milks were stored next to the drinkable milks, causing significant confusion.

The manager of Cannings Free Range Butchers, Tate Sullivan, said that his store had stopped selling the cosmetic milk after the death of the child. He said that he didn't believe that people buy the milk to bathe in it. He said that there had always been a loophole but now the government was closing the loophole.