"I'm in shock, I think it's a bit sensationalised," she told Fairfax Radio 3AW on Thursday. Ms Jones said she was aware people consumed Mountain View Farm's bath milk, despite the warnings on the label. "I know people drink it. It is a raw product - I don't know why people drink it. I mean, I guess they feel that it's healthy," she said. "The label actually says not for human consumption - it's a cosmetic product, not for human consumption. Every time we're approached by someone who says 'Can we drink this milk?' we tell them that it's not for consumption." Ms Jones said the company would put more warning labels on its products and also consider changing its bath milk packaging so it less resembled pasteurised milk.

"We've posted the health warnings on our Facebook page and emailed everyone we know. People need to know there are risks with consuming it," she said. Three of the affected children contracted a rare but potentially fatal condition known as haemolytic uraemic syndrome, which causes abdominal pains and bloody diarrhoea, while serious cases can lead to renal failure and death. All five children drank unpasteurised milk, which was marketed as a cosmetic product. The sale of unpasteurised milk for human consumption is banned in Victoria given its high risk of contamination, but it can be sold for other purposes, meaning it is legally available as "cosmetic" or "bath" milk in health food stores. Wayne Shields, president of the Victorian Farmers' Markets Association, has been a long-time distributor of milk from Mountain View Organic Farm from his Baxter farm gate.

He said he had full faith in the product, which he claimed was rigorously tested. Mr Shields, who drinks Mountain View Bath Milk himself, said he had been visited by Health Department officials. "But the batches they tested came back fine," he said. "If the Health Department told any of us the raw milk was the cause we and no one else would distribute the milk." He said the raw milk was initially distributed to members of Mountain View Farm's herd share, but had recently started to be sold to the public across the peninsula.

"You'd be very surprised how far it's distributed...right across eastern Melbourne actually," he said. Victoria's Chief Health Officer, Dr Rosemary Lester, has issued a warning to consumers in the wake of the toddler's death. "Everyone is vulnerable to illness caused by the pathogens present in raw milk, but the risks are even greater for young children and for the elderly, those with underlying health problems, immunocompromised or pregnant," Dr Lester said. She said dairy farmers could not guarantee that unpasteurised milk was free from harmful bacteria despite precautions. Dr Lester said on Thursday that she was concerned to learn that "cosmetic milk" was sold alongside other drinks in health food stores and packaged in a similar fashion to pasteurised milk.

She has taken her concerns to Consumer Affairs Victoria and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. "It's impossible to sterilise milk without pasteurisation," she told 3AW. It has been compulsory for cow's milk for human consumption to be pasteurised in Australia since the 1940s. Pasteurisation involves heating the milk for a short time to kill any disease-causing bacteria it may contain, including E.coli. Consumer Affairs Victoria confirmed it was working with the ACCC to assess whether any consumer laws were being breached in the marketing of unpasturised milk. Director Claire Noone warned consumers not to drink any raw or unpasturised milk, no matter how carefully it had been produced. Mr Shields said the Victorian Farmers' Markets Association was responsible for accrediting farmers, rather than monitoring the products sold at markets.

"We accredit them as farmers, but beyond that it's actually the up to market managers decide who comes in and what they sell," he said. Nutritionist Arabella Forge likened the unpasteurised milk industry to a "disaster zone". She said the failure of food authorities to recognise the increasing demand for raw milk had seen parents turn to a "black market" of sorts. "There are several easy-to-follow models from overseas where raw milk can be legally sold and safely sold. I don't see why we can't simply adopt one of those systems here in Australia," she said. "That would make raw milk safe to drink and people would know what they're buying instead of having to buy something off the black market which is bath milk."

Ms Forge said the demand for unpasteurised milk had increased, despite the high cost of bath milk. "Every time I go into the health food store there's probably more bath milk than there is pasteurised milk. It's telling us that people want to buy fresh milk. They're not purposely putting themselves or their children at risk ... they just want this product," she said. Ms Forge and her family consumed raw milk from the farm of her parents-in-law. "We're a dairy farming family. And on the farm they test it every morning, so we know what we're drinking. It's a very, very different system to have something that's tested for pathogen counts and cell counts ... than buying something off the shelf that's labelled for a different purpose altogether," she said.