Milk for Expats in Indonesia with young children

[BaliLife]

Hi All,

If you're an expat with young children, as am I you may have encountered some challenges with milk for your young ones.

I have a 4 y.o. boy and an 18 m.o. daughter. Between them and I (I only use milk for cereal in the morning) we go through just over 2 litres of milk a day - my kids love milk, and we always give them full cream. In australia and canada, doctors encourage you to give your kids lots of milk. Here they don't, because according to my wife local milk often upsets kids tummies, so almost all of my wife's friends here run around giving their kids a type of formula mix - not baby formula, but it is for kids. Anyway, we like to give the kids as much milk as they please and neither one have a weight problem, which is the only thing our doctors have said some parents need to be aware of.

So the problem, we need to buy imported milk, but most UHT milk tastes very strange - the kids still drink it, but it definitely tastes different. We used to buy Pura (18,000+ / litre), then found Devondale (16,000+ / litre) which was better in flavour. But on our last family trip to Bali, the CircleK around the corner was out of both Pura and Devondale, so in a moment of desperation I had to buy Frisian Flag Mild (Imported from NZ, but seemingly packaged in Indo - not too sure). it was 12,500 / litre in CircleK which is obviously more than a regular supermarket.

IT IS THE BEST TASTING UHT MILK I'VE EVER HAD.

Now, we only ever hunt for that. The problem is it's obviously imported batch-by-batch, and it seems as though every place is waiting for the next batch. I sent our driver out today on a hunt - he managed to get 72 litres, from 2 different Giant stores, 1 Alpha, 1 Carrefour and 1 Hypermart.that's enough to get us through til mid-August when we head back to Vancouver for 2 months.

If you like Aussie / NZ tasting regular milk, try it!! And on top of everything, it's 20-30% cheaper that Pura and Devondale!!

Happy SuSu!

Ct

[Markit]

What's wrong with the Balinese milk?

I mean, I love the Balinese cows, and there seem to be enough of them.

Pasteurization isn't rocket science and seemingly widespread.

You say your wife says the kids don't get on well with it - how about grownups?

The only reason I ask is cause I love it too and would be sadly disappointed if I couldn't get a tall cold glass full now and then, not to mention with my tea (yes, that strange English habit has caught me too.)

[BaliLife]

i haven't tried the local stuff - but given the sterile conditions one should be handling milk in, i guess that lends support to the fact..

i don't think local milk will kill anyone (well as long as you don't live in china :roll: ), but i still stick to the imported milk..

ct

[BaliLife]

it's official :cry:

frisian flag is no longer being imported.. that leaves pura (a rip off) or greenfields.. apparently the cows that produce greenfields milk are imported - but the pasteurization is done locally..

oh well, the search continues - we managed to get 20 or so cartons, but i'm pretty sure they're about the last of the product in surabaya..

ct

[mimpimanis]

Marty still drinks formula but for us, cereal etc we use Greenfields. I find it fine. :)

[BaliLife]

h mimpi, yeah actually the kids have been drinking (once a day only) the greenfields chocolate milk.. once a day only because it's chocolate milk and even then we "water it down" with regular milk.. initially i was a little apprehensive with it being pasteurized here, but it seems fine.. so i think it will be greenfields going forward..

the pura here now, besides being a rip off, seems to have a pretty strong taste that we're not big fans of..

ct

[akucintabali]

You need to be careful with UHT milk. It is very high in fat, they use it in psych to fatten thoses with eating disorders, they're ignorant to the fat content.

[toucan]

Last time I was in Bali, one of my friends said that there was a problem with a lot of goods - I think something to do with ingredients originating from China. Anyway, one of the products she said was on a list of 'bad' products was an iced coffee which I really liked. The brand name from memory was something 'flag'. I know this is all very vague and I am sorry I cannot remember the details, but if it is the brand you like Balilife, then it could explain why it is now no longer available. You might want to check it out before consuming your stockpile.

[toucan]

Sorry Balilife, ignore the above, I finally got a reply from my friend and it was Dutch Lady brand and it was due to the melamine contamination.

[Bert Vierstra]

Please look here:

http://iskconklang.wordpress.com/2008/0 ... -melamine/

and here:

http://malaysiadigest.blogspot.com/2008 ... dairy.html

Please not, these posts are made in september 2008.

Look here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal

and here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_o ... lk_scandal