ORIGINS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MILK BISCUIT

The genesis of the Australian Milk Biscuit was a suggestion from the late Bert Gilbert of the Dairy Board who said they needed a form of milk to use in developing countries where milk powders were not widely used because of a lack of clean water, recombining facilities and refrigeration for distribution and storage. Alex Buchanan at the CSIRO Dairy Research laboratory was asked to develop a form of milk suitable for use in these areas.

Biscuits were seen as "ready to eat" and easy to transport and store.

However biscuits could not be fortified with significant amounts of milk powder because milk sugar (lactose) is a reducing sugar that causes browning (Maillard reaction), resulting in the biscuits burning during baking. Fortunately, CSIRO Dairy Research had just developed a new form of milk protein isolate called "co-precipitate" that was lactose-free and contained nearly all the proteins in milk.

So a batch of biscuits was produced with co-precipitate as the major source of protein, butter as the fat source and wheat flour plus cane sugar (sucrose) as the carbohydrate - in the same proportions are they occur in milk. Flavouring, vitamins and minerals could be added as required. The flavour and texture were close to shortbread and very acceptable so CSIRO took them to a local commercial manufacturer, Arnott-Brockhoff-Guest Pty Ltd (later Arnotts) and asked if such a product could be made commercially.

The reaction from production manager Alan Brockhoff was "Hell brother, if you can make them, we can".

So in 1965, with the strong support of General Manager Roy Hoult, and Chief Chemist Frank Townsend, Arnotts produced about 300 Kg in 3 flavours. These were most acceptable to everyone who tried the product, including consumers and nutritionists in developing countries, but buyers with money were a problem.

Then in 1968 the Australian Dairy Board arranged for members of the Zambian Dairy Board to visit the CSIRO laboratories. The Zambians wanted to supply milk to schools and "under-5 clinics", but had a problem with poor distribution facilities and lack of refrigeration. The milk biscuits were the answer.

Zambia ordered over 600 tonnes in one year from the Arnott-Brockhoff-Guest factory in Burwood and marketed them with the slogan "Eat More Milk". Later, the Australian government supplied a 1 tonne per day biscuit plant which was assembled in Melbourne, then boxed up and sent to Lusaka where Frank Townsend reassembled it to produce the biscuits locally, using Australian raw materials.

From 1971 to 1974, the company nominated a senior executive, Ray Mittag, full time to market the biscuits internationally. By this time, there was a war in Biafra, Nigeria and a need for emergency feeding for refugees, particularly infants. Again the milk biscuits were ideal, and lactose-free, which suited the needs of lactose-intolerant African children. Soon international agencies were calling on the Australian government for more of their "Food Aid" in the form of biscuits for flood victims and refugees in many parts of the developing world and organizations like Rotary were using the biscuits.

From 1981 to 1991, the Australian government alone bought 4,700 tonnes of biscuits worth $14.8 million for their food aid program. At the same time the biscuits were being used in isolated centers such as aboriginal communities in outback Australia where infant feeding was a problem. They were also sold in school tuck shops around Melbourne after mothers learned that milk biscuits were protective against dental caries.

For over 25 years the Australian government Food Aid budget for milk biscuits was over $4 million per annum. This was greatly assisted by Foreign Minister Andrew Peacock, who gave Arnotts an order for 100 tonnes to maintain a stockpile in Australia, allowing Australia to respond immediately to emergency situations as the need arose.