Faqs

Yes, our semi-skimmed and whole milk is homogenised.

Homogenisation is the process of dispersing the cream throughout the milk so that fat is evenly dispersed and there is no formation of a cream layer at the top of the milk.

Goats’ milk is naturally more homogenous than cows’ milk as it has a higher percentage of smaller fat globules.

As our skimmed milk does not contain fat, it is not homogenised.

All St Helen's Farm products are suitable for vegetarians. This is the case with most dairy products, whether they are made from goats', cows' or sheeps' milk. One product that sometimes isn't is cheese, where a few cheeses are made with animal rennet (or possibly yogurt or desserts that may use gelatine). However, St Helen's Farm goats' cheese is all made with vegetarian rennet and our yogurts do not use gelatine.

As our suppliers’ are working farms, we have to be careful with regards to hygiene and disease risk, as well as health and safety issues. As a result, public farm tours are not routinely conducted.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us by phone on 01430 861715 or email info@sthelensfarm.co.uk

Our products are only available in supermarkets or through online delivery from a retailer. Our customers are Tesco, Sainsbury, Waitrose, Morrisons, Co-op and Ocado. Not all of our products are available in all stores and our most popular line – fresh goats milk – is only in Tesco, Sainsbury and Morrisons stores and the online retailer Ocado. To see our stockist guide click here.

If you have specific problems trying to find a stockist near to where you live, please call our helpline on 01430 861715 or email info@sthelensfarm.co.uk and we'll do our best to help.

We have taken steps to improve recyclability and reduce the amount of plastic in many of our products. Changes to our 100% recyclable cartons have helped to reduce plastic by 5 tonnes annually.

Milk

Our milk cartons are widely recycled. To discover if food and drink cartons are collected with your household recycling, visit Recycle Now.

Yogurt

We've recently moved or are moving to 100% recyclable material for all our yogurts and are minimising the amount of packaging we use.

Cheese

While not recyclable, our current cheese packaging offers better barrier protections to our products, thus extending their shelf life and reducing food waste, which is essential to minimising the nation's carbon footprint. However, we will continue to assess this over the coming year, monitoring developments of packaging suppliers and working with supermarkets to ensure our products meet consumer needs and minimise the impact on our planet.

Butter

This packaging is not yet widely recycled.

Our hard goats' cheese and goats' butter will generally be on quite a long 'best before' code when in the supermarket. Both of them can, however, be frozen successfully if required. Goats' milk can also be frozen but to get the best results after defrosting, we recommend some very specific points such as freezing as quickly as possible on day of purchase. Please go to the milk page for more detailed advice.

Goats' milk yogurts are not good for freezing, mainly because the texture is unsatisfactory once defrosted.

As with all chilled dairy products, we recommend the use of chiller bags when bringing home from the supermarket, and placing in the refrigerator or freezer, at the correct temperature, as soon as you can.

St Helen’s Farm is a dairy, not a farm and there are no goats on our site. As we are not responsible for feeding any of the goats’ on our suppliers’ farms, we cannot comment on their exact diets, however we do closely monitor and audit these farms and can confirm that they are fed nutritious and natural food.

Many people choose goats' milk simply because they love the taste. Others do so because cows' milk does not agree with them and they want a natural alternative. Many of them tell us that they have derived health benefits by switching to goats' milk.

Most common problems include digestive disorders such as bloatedness, irritable bowel, and catarrh, chestiness, eczema and even asthma. Nutritionally, goats' milk is a good source of calcium and has many of the essential vitamins and minerals we need.

To discover more about the health benefits of goats' milk click HERE.

Research has indicated that it has much to do with the protein structure in the milks. They are called caseins and the absence of alpha-s1 casein and a higher proportion of beta-casein in goats' milk means that the casein profile of goats' milk is closer to human milk than that of cows' milk. These proteins form a softer curd in the stomach and the fat particles are also smaller, which is a great aid to digestion for many who cannot tolerate cows' milk.

The milk supplied to us from British farms is not organic.

Yes. St Helen's Farm goats' milk is excellent for children. Introduce into a diet just as you would cows' milk. Semi-skimmed or skimmed milk is not recommended for children under 2 years of age because they have fewer calories and young children need the energy from the higher fat content of whole milk.

Nutritionally, the two milks are quite similar and there is no reason at all why goats' milk cannot be considered as a natural alternative to cows' milk. Because milk is a fresh food, nutritional values are liable to vary for reasons of seasonality, type of herd, time of milking, etc. All milk, including goats' milk, is an excellent source of calcium. Just three glasses (750ml) can provide the recommended daily allowance for an adult.