10 hours ago, BritManToo said:

If it is labelled fresh

Can you define the word "fresh"? It is in actual fact marketing nonsense. In places like the EU, there are laws that control how milk is sold regarding content, condition, etc. – The term generally implies that food has not been processed or preserved in specific ways. This can vary by product – I don't think just making up your own definition for the word "fresh" carries much weight when buying milk in Thailand, where laws and interpretations and climate are quite different.

7 hours ago, Emdog said:

(from google search) "The "Imperial" brand offers various butter products, including a salted butter blend (which contains a mix of butter, palm oil, salt, and milk powder) that is widely available in Thai supermarkets."

Maybe if got rid of 'blending materials' they could make real butter using more milk that might even taste good....

Butter is originally made from the fat (cream) content of milk so the modern version unsurprisingly incorporates the ubiquitous cheap palm oil to bulk productivity thus profit. The stripped milk is used in other imaginative ways.

2 hours ago, kwilco said:

Can you define the word "fresh"? It is in actual fact marketing nonsense. In places like the EU, there are laws that control how milk is sold regarding content, condition, etc. – The term generally implies that food has not been processed or preserved in specific ways. This can vary by product – I don't think just making up your own definition for the word "fresh" carries much weight when buying milk in Thailand, where laws and interpretations and climate are quite different.

I've always assumed fresh = not dried then reconstituted 6 months later.

20 hours ago, JensenZ said:

Nonsense! Thailand produces a lot of cheese and butter. You may prefer imported brands, but Allowrie butter is available everywhere, along with a long list of Thai cheeses. Thai people love cheese, but generally can't afford the imported products, so they buy locally produced brands.

Fresh milk is not mixed with milk powder if it is labelled fresh milk. UHT milk and formulations use milk powders, but this is a common practice globally.

If it is labelled fresh, it's 100% fresh cow's milk. We seem to get this (conspiracy) nonsense in every thread about milk, that it is mixed with imported powders.

Example, from the Meiji website:

Meiji Pasteurized 100% Fresh Cow’s Milk made from 100% fine quality milk to offer you the delicious, rich and creamy taste with rich natural nutrients such as protein, calcium and vitamin B2. 

As is obvious in the OP, fresh raw milk is abundant in Thailand.

Oh, Yeah, give me your list of Thai cheeses, I mean the ones made from cow's milk, not goat's milk cheese, like someone else has posted. It will not be very long, if any. Allowrie butter is imported from Australia.

As I said, over 50% of Thai dairy farmers have stopped producing over the past 3 years, so where is the milk coming from,? As for your rich and creamy taste, with the diet Thai cows are on, all the forage for most cows is rice straw, very low-quality feed makes the milk low in fat, protein, and your cream

Thai farmers get paid a base price for their milk, then a price increase for the quality, fat ,protein, and at one time they used the American standard, Thailand not having one of its own, as said with the low quality feed, they never reached the standard, some farmers where getting money deducted, with the poor quality so they now have they own standard lower than the American and Uk standard.

A few years ago posters on here were saying why is Thai milk like colored water,....see above., I normally use low-fat milk, do not like fat in my tea, sometimes I have brought full-fat milk, you can taste the difference, just like UK milk.it comes from added milk powder.

If you can speak Thai ask someone who is well connected with the Thai dairy industry, as I did, they will tell you the truth.

One other thing, The Thai Denmark milk company make UHT milk, it is all whole milk no added milk powder, as said before the only milk company to do so.

On 1/9/2026 at 9:14 PM, kickstart said:

Thailand does not make any butter or cheese, and never has, cheese has been tried but never got past the drawing board stage.

The DPO's marketing arm is the Thai Denmark milk brand, the only Thai milk company that does not mix imported milk powder to their milk like other milk company's which I think is why they are in debt big time,as milk powder comes in to Thailand at about 15 baht /Kg as opposed to milk company's having to buy in milk in at about 24 baht/Kg.

CHEESE, by Jeez! We want Thai cheese!

Does even Chokchai use melamine milk powder???

2 hours ago, BritManToo said:

I've always assumed fresh = not dried then reconstituted 6 months later.

Well, there's nothing that says it has to you're just falling for marketing for the most part. "Fresh" in most cases is a meaningless word

Fresh piece of paper

Fresh water

fresh air

fresh outlook

Air freshener

Fresh look

Fresh coat of paint,

Fresh sheets,

Fresh in people's minds

Fresh recruits

When milk comes out of a cow – it is warm – it then goes through several industrial processes and they tell you it's "fresh"

22 hours ago, 0ffshore360 said:

Butter is originally made from the fat (cream) content of milk so the modern version unsurprisingly incorporates the ubiquitous cheap palm oil to bulk productivity thus profit. The stripped milk is used in other imaginative ways.

In the UK and EU, butter, by legal definition, does not contain added sugar or artificial sweeteners as primary ingredients. The only common non-milk additive permitted in plain butter is salt.  In some countries, farmers feed palm oil to cows to boost saturated fat in milk, which makes the butter stiffer and harder at room temperature, affecting spreadability.  Versions of butter-based spreads may contain palm oil.

This comes as no surpise, I drink very little milk But always have a 1lt bottle (meiji brand?) in the fridge..... last for months before it turns !

1 hour ago, Ralf001 said:

This comes as no surpise, I drink very little milk But always have a 1lt bottle (meiji brand?) in the fridge..... last for months before it turns !

I am happy I am not the only person to have noticed that !

I rarely use milk but unsweet yogurt sometimes. The meji refuses to co operate !

On 1/11/2026 at 9:40 AM, JensenZ said:

Check the Meiji website.

There's an article in the Bangkok Post explaining where the misinformation about Fresh milk being made from powdered milk started. I'm not sure if I can link it, so you may want to search for it on Google. The article is titled "Setting the Record Straight".

"Savita received the most backlash because of her negative comments about local cow's milk. In their comments, many accused her of devaluing Thailand's milk and farmers. An example of her comments includes: "Most cow milk in Thailand is not real milk. It is mixed with powdered milk."

Many people have now adopted this idea as fact, and it has been repeated numerous times in this forum.

The OP said that Nong Ree milk center, the one who tipped away 40 ton of milk, that is only 60 km from me ,I live in a big dairy cow area, and this is the talk of the area, and two dairy farmers I have spoken to said it is the milk powder that is the problem mixed with whole milk, because they would not be enough fresh milk produced to supply the market, as said with 50% of dairy farmers given up .over the past 3 years, yet still the same amount of milk for sale in your 7-11's etc..

As from 1st January 2025, under WTO rules, Thailand cannot impose import duties on imported milk powder, which comes from Australia and NZ, so milk companies are happy they will make more money using milk powder.

Have they tried the schools & proper priced in the school budget instead of the Director creaming off the top! Pun intended