Anchor Milk, a New Zealand brand, has been brought across the ditch and with it brings technology that hasn’t been used in Australia before, described as a coup for Western Victoria.

Anchor brank milk goes beyond the normal pasteurisation processes to further eliminate naturally occurring, but unwanted, bacteria that causes spoilage. 

On top of pasteurisation, the milk is goes through microfiltration and is pushed through a special ceramic filter which removes 95 per cent of spoilage causing bacteria. 

The process extends shelf life to 21 days. Normally pasteurised milk has a shelf life of 15 days.  

Fonterra’s director of marketing Kiril Simonovski said it was a coup for the Cobden plant to be the first to use microfiltration. 

He said milk for the Anchor brand was sourced exclusively from 34 farms near the Cobden plant which produce “high quality milk year round.” 

“Milk has become something of a commodity in Australia, but we saw the opportunity to raise the bar with Anchor and believe microfiltration will be a game-changer, with Victoria our first market,” Mr Simonovski. 

“We know consumers shop by used-by-date because they want the freshest product. 

“We think Anchor will appeal to households looking for a premium product with a price only slightly higher than regular milk.

“Anchor is clean on the palette and has distinctly no after-taste – even after a week or two in the fridge.”

CSIRO Food Manufacturing Leader, Darren Gardiner, said microfiltration had been received well in other parts of the world.

“The additional step of filtering out the unwanted bacteria in milk before pasteurisation is a major development in fresh milk,” Mr Gardiner said. 

Anchor was launched this week and is available at Victorian Woolworth’s stores. 

The brand’s dairy fund will invest a $250,000 each year into sustainable dairy farming projects, offering farms support to implement latest technologies such as health monitors for cows, soil testing, irrigation and mentoring.