NMPF’s Jonker reports on International Dairy Federation Progress
November 3, 2021
Dr. Jamie Jonker, as chair of the IDF Science Program Coordinating Committee, reported on the scientific and technical progress completed by the International Dairy Federation during the past year during the IDF Forum at the Global Dairy Conference held Oct. 13-15.
Dr. Jonker emphasized that the success of IDF “is a direct result of the scientific and technical expertise of more than 1200 global dairy leaders who work on the greater than 150 IDF projects.” In the last year, IDF published nearly 50 bulletins, standards, factsheets, reports, and comment submissions in addition to about 30 scientific and technical webinars. Among the highlights from the last year:
- IDF Virtual Nutrition Symposium highlighting the valuable nutrient density of dairy products as part of a healthy diet
- IDF Virtual International Cheese Science & Technology Symposium imparting the latest information on cheese manufacturing
- IDF Dairy Sustainability Outlook, coinciding with the UNFSS, highlighting sustainable dairy production systems around the world
- IDF Bulletin 507/2020: The Codex General Standard for the Use of Dairy Terms Its nature, intent and implication which reaffirmed that dairy products only come from mammalian milk and not plants or laboratories
Despite the challenges during the global pandemic, IDF continued to deliver on its scientific and technical mandate, including standards, technical specifications, methods of analysis, guidelines and standards development from the farm to the consumer. IDF scientific and technical work is tied to how sustainability can be measured to provide evidence to customers and consumers about dairy as part of a sustainable nutritious food.
During the last year, IDF worked collaboratively with the Global Dairy Platform providing scientific and technical information about dairy production and nutrition for the UN Food Systems Summit. Dr. Jonker ended with emphasizing IDF support for the CODEX definition of milk which is “Milk is the normal mammary secretion of milking animals obtained from one or more milkings without either addition to it or extraction from it, intended for consumption as liquid milk or for further processing.”
IDF is the leading source of scientific and technical expertise for all stakeholders of the dairy chain. Since 1903, IDF has provided a mechanism for the dairy sector to reach global consensus on how to help feed the world with safe and sustainable dairy products. A recognized international authority in the development of science-based standards for the dairy sector, IDF has an important role to play in ensuring the right policies, standards, practices and regulations are in place to ensure the world’s dairy products are safe and sustainable.
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