St Croix to get milk testing laboratory
by Melody Wiggins
Caribbean Net News Correspondent
Monday, August 29, 2005
ST CROIX, USVI: In a move that will spell
good economic news to St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, Health Commissioner
Darlene Carty informed the Health and Hospital Senate Committee last week that
a milk certification laboratory will be located on St. Croix.
The new lab is expected to generate millions
of dollars in future sales of Federal Food and Drug Administration approved
Grade A milk to cruise ships operating in the Caribbean.
For years St. Thomas Diaries in the U.S. Virgin Islands was doing a thriving
business selling FDA approved Grade A milk to about 10 cruise lines operating
in the Caribbean. Then Hurricane Marilyn devastated St. Thomas in Sept. 2004.
An estimated 80 percent of the homes and
businesses on St. Thomas were destroyed and at least 10,000 people were left
homeless. The hurricane was also to blame for the loss of the cows in St.
Thomas. St. Thomas Dairies company president Fred Hintz said after the
hurricane, the cows could not be found for several weeks. When they were
eventually located, their milk had dried up.
Since then, St. Thomas Dairies milk is produced from Canadian dried non-fat
milk solids and frozen butterfat from Ireland. Subsequently, the cruise lines
were told by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that 5
points would be deducted on their sanitary inspections if they bought milk not
certified Grade A. The loss of the cruise industry market cost the Virgin
Islands approximately $1 million in sales per year.
Island Dairies, located on St. Croix, uses Holstein cattle to produce fresh
milk and ice cream. The company also produces a line of juice products,
including passion fruit, guava pineapple and fruit punch and iced tea.
Carty told the Senate committee that the lab would be operational within a
year. The lab would be located at the Charles Harwood Medical Complex in
Estate Richmond, Christiansted, St. Croix. She said since more than 80 percent
of the milk processing is done on St. Croix; it makes economical and practical
sense to locate the testing laboratory on that island.
Back...
Most popular
articles: viewed, printed and e-mailed
Printable
version
| 
