THE Dairy believes it has isolated its problem with processing and packing milk. It can now bypass the fault to ensure milk can be released earlier each day.

But Commerce and Employment member Duncan Staples said the precautionary testing procedure would continue until the Dairy was confident that the problem would not return. He said it was too early to say when this would be.

All varieties were released to milkmen at 11am yesterday, half-an-hour earlier than expected. Today’s batch should be available earlier still, at 9.30am.

A Dairy management spokesman said the public should not be concerned over the safety or quality of local milk.

‘The precautions taken this week, while causing unfortunate but unavoidable supply delays, have shown that the Dairy is vigilant in maintaining that quality,’ he said.

Deputy Staples said it was too early to say when the problems would be completely rectified.

‘I would like to say by next week it will be back to normal but if it is not, we would look foolish so it is difficult to be too committal,’ he said.

‘We think we have isolated the problem and have a system in place to process and pack milk without incurring abnormal bacteria levels.

‘But we need to solve the problem and be completely confident that it won’t come back.’

The Dairy spokesman said it was continuing to work closely with milkmen to reduce disruption to a minimum.

Guernsey Milk Retailers’ Association committee member Ian Wood said most milkmen had coped well with their delayed rounds yesterday and adapted to the situation.

He served his customers as best he could by making multiple deliveries.

After completing all yesterday’s shop and home ones, he returned to the Dairy and picked up another batch to deliver to the shops to ensure they had enough to see them through this morning.

He then returned to the Dairy to pick up a third batch and made all his Saturday morning house deliveries last night.

‘This way I ensured that all today’s customers had their milk for their breakfast,’ he said.

‘We are all trying to make the best of a difficult situation and just have our fingers crossed that things will be resolved as quickly as possible.’