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“The Filled Milk Controversy: Debating Nutritional Security and National Self-Sufficiency in the Philippines, 1957-1961” by Dr. Nicolo Ludovice (HKUST)
February 6 @ 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm

This presentation examines the filled milk controversy in the Philippines (1957–1961) and its impact on nutrition, public health, economic policy, and national self-sufficiency. Filled milk, a recombined dairy product using vegetable oils like coconut and corn oil instead of animal fats, was introduced as a cost-effective alternative to whole milk, particularly for low-income families. Its adoption aligned with post-war economic goals to reduce reliance on imported dairy and promote local industries, such as coconut oil production. However, its proliferation sparked debates among nutritionists, policymakers, and the public over its nutritional adequacy, especially for infants and children, and its potential risks to public health.
Drawing on congressional records, scientific studies, newspaper articles, and advertisements, this presentation situates the controversy within the socio-economic and political context of the post-war Philippines. It argues that the debate reflects the tension between economic pragmatism and public health in a resource-constrained society. While filled milk addressed immediate nutritional and economic needs, it also exposed systemic issues like food insecurity, malnutrition, and ethical challenges in balancing development with health priorities. This study highlights the importance of evidence-based policymaking and offers insights into the historical evolution of public health and food policy in the Philippines.
Nicolo Paolo P. Ludovice is a research assistant professor at the Division of Public Policy, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He completed his PhD in History at the University of Hong Kong (2021). His doctoral project investigated the history of animals in medicine and health in the nineteenth- and the twentieth-century Philippines. His research interests broadly cover global histories of environmental health and animal history, the history of science, technology, and medicine (with focus on biomedicine, public health, and zoonoses), food history, and health-environmental humanities, with the Philippines as his geographical focus. His work appears in Society and Animals, Global Food History, the Electricity Journal, Energy Strategy Reviews, and Climate Risk Management, as well as in the edited collection Routledge Handbook of Environmental History (2024) and Halo-halo Ecologies: The Emergent Environments Behind Filipino Food (UHawaii Press, 2025). He is the recipient of the Wang Gungwu Prize for Research Postgraduate Students by the University of Hong Kong (2022) and the prestigious Young Historian’s Prize 2022 by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, the Republic of the Philippines.
The Science, Technology and Medicine Seminar (STMS) series, co-hosted by the Medical Ethics and Humanities Unit and the Department of History at the University of Hong Kong, promotes cutting edge cross-disciplinary research that straddles the arts, sciences, and medicine. The aim is to provide a friendly forum to debate and test new ideas, papers, chapters, book projects and grant proposals, as well as topical issues and individual research.
If you are interested in joining, or participating in future seminars, please let us know. We welcome suggestions for future presentations and discussion topics. For further information about STMS activities, please contact Dr Ria Sinha at riasinha@hku.hk, or Dr Carol Tsang at cctsang1@hku.hk.