Dairy Groups Urge Senators to Include Raw Milk Facilities in Food Safety Regulations
December 1, 2009
Dairy Groups Urge Senators to Include Raw Milk Facilities in Food Safety Regulations
On November 13, 2009, NMPF and the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) asked senators working on food safety legislation to ensure that facilities marketing raw milk products be included in the legislation.
In a letter to Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA), chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, and Michael Enzi (R-WY), the committee's ranking member, the dairy groups called for requiring all facilities producing raw or unpasteurized milk products for direct human consumption to register with FDA and adhere to the tried-and-true food safety requirements that are followed by all other facilities producing milk products.
"Before pasteurization became widely utilized during the 1920s, human consumption of raw milk was one of the major sources of food borne illnesses and one of the primary causes of infant mortality," said NMPF CEO Jerry Kozak and IDFA CEO Connie Tipton in the letter. "It is important to the health of the American public, and for the continued confidence in the dairy industry, that the new food safety legislation bolsters the success of the PMO program and applies any new FDA requirements to raw milk and raw dairy products."
The PMO covers all aspects of hazard analysis, planning and monitoring from farm to plant to delivery of finished milk products to retail outlets. These extensive requirements are enhanced and updated every two years through a coordinated program between FDA and state regulatory departments, resulting in very low numbers of food safety problems for pasteurized dairy products.
Raw milk products intended for human consumption have been associated with a much higher incidence of food-related illnesses. However, the products and facilities producing them are not required to comply with food safety plans, record keeping and access, and other regulations that are triggered by registration with FDA.
