THE Dairy is under fire for delays in alerting the public about a milk recall. Retailers were told of the recall of green and red varieties at about 7am yesterday, but the Dairy did not send out a media release until 10.15.

Many shops were still in the dark at 11am, having sold large quantities of the suspect stock.

A Dairy spokeswoman denied that it was an E. coli scare, despite an email to that effect having spread around workplaces across the island by early morning.

‘This email did not originate from the Dairy and is pure speculation. You know how these things get out of hand,’ she said.

Its official statement said that the recall was a precautionary measure due to a slightly higher than average level of bacteria found in the milk.

‘Due to the testing regime, we have an early indication of potential problems and are therefore satisfied that there is no risk to consumers,’ said a management spokesman.

No red milk will be delivered today.

And serious delays are expected to both doorstep and shop deliveries of green skimmed and blue low fat.

The full cream variety in today’s batch failed the Dairy’s stringent bacteria level tests.

But milkmen were left uninformed outside for up to three hours before milk was released at 8am.

One of them, Sue McCathie, arrived at 6am and was among 20 others.

An hour later they were told that red milk had failed tests for having a too high bacteria count and a final decision on whether any milk would be released would be made at 8am.

This happened punctually, allowing the first milkmen to leave the Dairy and start their rounds at 8.10am, more than three hours late.

‘It has been left to the individual milk retailers whether they do their doorstop deliveries. I expect most of them will, but a number are concerned that they won’t make people’s houses before they go to work and milk will be left out in the sun all day,’ said Mrs McCathie.

Some milkmen have six-hour rounds and would not finish until mid-afternoon.

‘We were told that the same problem will occur tomorrow.’

Dairy management apologised this morning and thanked roundsmen for their patience.

About 19 milk retailers starting queuing from 5am.

Guernsey Milk Retailers Association committee member Matt Waterman arrived shortly after that and was seventh in line.

‘At about 5.35am they announced that there would be no milk for at least two hours because of tests.’

At that stage he gave up and went home as he is planning a night away tonight and would not have finished his round before his ferry.

Mrs McCathie said: ‘We were told at 7am that an emergency meeting had convened between the Dairy management, ‘Commerce and Employment civil servant’ Richard Nash and the GMRA.’

She said further delays in the morning milk release time could have serious knock-on effects for deliveries.

The affected products in yesterday’s recall were full cream and skimmed milk with a use-by date of Saturday 15 July.

Dairy management said it had a stringent and thorough testing procedure and it was not entirely satisfied with some preliminary results.

Mr Waterman said the association had grave reservations about a Dairy management system that allowed its produce to be consumed by its customers before the results of bacteria level tests had been evaluated.

The Dairy anticipated a shortfall in milk supply yesterday and today.

But both Checkers and the Co-op were confident that as long as people did not panic bulk buy, its stock levels would meet normal demand.

Mrs McCathie, was the first alerted about the recall when she returned to the Dairy for her second pickup at 7.15am.

‘We were not given any explanation as to why the milk was being recalled.’

She claimed the Dairy must have known before 7am.

‘It is clearly a health concern, but the Dairy did not act fast enough to get it into the morning paper. It is not acceptable.

‘I understand that they had a problem and it must have been very difficult for them, but this sort of thing must be in the public domain as quickly as possible.’

By the time retailers were made aware, many doorstep deliveries had already been made.

‘Hundreds of islanders may have consumed it, from the elderly to youngsters and pregnant women.’