Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the role of milk in enabling healthy development in children.

The Government’s dietary recommendations are based on robust assessments of the scientific evidence by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) and its predecessor, the Committee on Medical Aspects of Nutrition Policy. Government advice on a healthy, balanced diet is encapsulated in the United Kingdom’s national food model, The Eatwell Guide.

In 2023, the SACN published its report Feeding young children aged 1 to 5 years, a comprehensive assessment of the scientific basis of the recommendations for feeding young children aged up to five years old. The SACN found that milk is an important contributor to energy intake and intakes of calcium and other micronutrients in children aged one to five years old. The SACN also found some evidence that there is no link between milk consumption and body fatness. The SACN recommended that:

- plain milk or water, in addition to breast milk, should constitute the majority of drinks given to children aged one to five years old; and

- pasteurised whole and semi-skimmed cows’ milk can be given as a main drink from the age of one years old.