The National Milk Producers Federation today reaffirmed the safety of milk, citing the numerous safeguards and rigorous testing procedures still in place after FDA announced a temporary suspension of one testing program, which the agency confirmed played a minor role in its overall food safety protocols.
“The milk proficiency testing program is a periodic review of the testing capacities of laboratories in FDA’s network, and is not used to directly test milk or other dairy products,” an FDA spokesperson said, referring to its Grade “A” milk proficiency testing (PT) program in a statement shared with NMPF. “The temporary suspension to the Proficiency Testing program does not impact routine testing of milk destined for pasteurization, or milk and dairy testing in illness investigations. The FDA continues to have confidence in the safety of the commercial, pasteurized milk supply.”
NMPF would like to be clear: The U.S. milk supply is safe. All routine quality and safety checks on farms, during milk transport, and at processing plants are being conducted as they always have been, in coordination with both state and federal partners.
NMPF has full confidence in the state, federal, and industry partnerships that work together to implement the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance, which has kept the U.S. milk supply safe for more than 100 years.
