Guide blog posts

A complete beginner’s guide to raw milk: what makes it raw, where it comes from, and where to find research-backed answers to every follow-up question.

The right amount of vetting a raw milk source needs depends on where you’re buying. A practical guide to what matters, and what doesn’t.

How long raw milk actually lasts depends on starting quality and storage temperature, not a fixed number. A complete, research-backed guide to storing it well.

Ireland’s Agriculture Minister admitted he drinks raw milk himself while detailing the EU hygiene package’s 20km, 30-litre weekly derogation for farm sales.

Belgium’s FAVV circular specifically governs raw milk vending machines, requiring placement within 80km of the producing farm and daily milk replacement. Bilingual guide to rauwe melk and lait cru in Belgium.

Spain requires raw milk direct sales to be packaged nationally. Catalonia went further with Decreto 163/2018, authorizing farm gate sales, retail, and automated vending machines: three years before the national framework caught up.

Raw milk is accessible in most US states. No vending machine network has developed in any of them. The reasons are structural: no machine-specific framework, a bottling default, shopping habits incompatible with raw milk’s shelf life, and farm geography.

Where to find raw milk vending machines across Europe by country, with local search terms and directory links. Covers Italy, France, Slovenia, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, Germany, and England.

Raw milk in France is available at the farm gate, from automated vending machines, and on the shelves of organic grocery stores, including Biocoop nationwide.

Switzerland’s federal food authorities have confirmed raw milk vending machines are permitted under a consumer information framework. Austria operates a formal inspection regime under AGES with mandatory boiling notices. Two Alpine approaches compared.

Squeezed by merchant pricing that paid farmers roughly 30 cents on the euro, Slovenian dairy farmers built a direct-sale raw milk vending network that now spans close to 70 locations nationwide.

Authorized by national agreement in January 2007 and codified into permanent law in 2013, Italy’s network of raw milk vending machines spans more than 1,000 locations from the Po Valley to Sicily.