A farmer’s daughter has said she “saw red” after Aer Lingus gave her Slovakian milk on a recent flight. 

Aer Lingus customer Mary regularly flies between Ireland and Germany, where her husband is from. 

On Sunday, she was on a flight from Dublin to Frankfurt when she ordered a cup of coffee, which came with a small blue mini milk. 

“I had the usual coffee and when you're on your third little mini milk I thought, ‘What's this blue?’” she recalled on Lunchtime Live. 

“Kukkonia.sk milk. 

“Now, my husband is German, he was sitting beside me. 

“He thought I was having some sort of a fit. I was like, ‘What is this? What's Kukkonia, Slovakia?’”

An Aer Lingus plane on the ground at Dublin Airport. Picture by: Alamy.com.

Kukkonia Milk originates from the Great Rye Island in Slovakia. The company says it uses the “latest technological innovation, which serves as the highest product quality guarantee”. 

However, Mary said she much preferred drinking milk from the Cavan-based Lakeland Dairies. 

She quizzed a member of the cabin crew if she knew why Aer Lingus was using Slovakian milk. However, the stewardess was equally as shocked as she was. 

“She said, ‘Imagine an Irish dairy farmer sitting here and seeing that,’” Mary said. 

“So, I mean, I didn't see blue, I saw red. I was so cross.

“I mean, I thought, is this like the Brazilian beef all over again?” 

An Aer Lingus aircraft with some sheep in the foreground. Picture by: PA Wire/PA Images.

Mary continued that, having grown up on a farm in the west of Ireland, seeing Slovakian milk served on an Aer Lingus flight “rattled my cage”.

“Look, we export, what is it? 90 or 94% of our milk,” she said. 

“And I thought, surely to God, we don't need to be importing milk from Slovakia?

“I don't know, I used to be married to a dairy farmer. 

“17,000 dairy farmers in Ireland aren't going to be happy.” 

Mary added that she strenuously believes that as an Irish airline, Aer Lingus should champion Irish products. 

“I said, ‘I won't calm down, this is just not on,’” she recalled. 

“You know, I thought, look at our former State airline, our national airline. 

“Have they no conscience? What's going on? What are they doing bringing in these mini milks from Slovakia?”

In a statement to Newstalk, Aer Lingus said their catering partner had "experienced a temporary shortage of the Irish-produced milk sticks". 

"To ensure continuity of service, an alternative has been used on a short-term basis," a spokesperson said. 

"Normal supply is expected to resume shortly." 

Main image: A split of Aer Lingus and a farmer with cows. Pictures by: Rolling News and Alamy.com.