FDA Gives Conditional OK to Use UF Milk in Cheese for Six Months

By Kate Sander, Chief Editor, Cheese Market News

WASHINGTON — FDA has sent a letter to USDA saying that the FDA won't object to the use of ultrafiltered (UF) milk in the manufacture of standardized Mozzarella and Cheddar for the next six months.

The Oct. 21 letter from John Foret, director, Division of Programs and Enforcement Policy, Office of Food Labeling, FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration), to F. Tracy Schonrock, chief of USDA's (U.S. Dept. of Agriculture's) Dairy Grading Branch, is in response to ongoing confusion about whether UF milk — which has had water and lactose removed through membrane technology — can legally be used in standardized cheeses.

In his letter, Foret says that based on FDA's review of the available information and on the interpretation that the standards for cheese, as written, do not allow for the use of UF milk, it has been concluded that UF milk in standard cheeses can't be accommodated outside of rulemaking.

FDA will consider amending the regulations in response to a petition requesting that the standards be altered to accommodate the use of UF milk, Foret continues, and thus, pending receipt of a petition or for six months from the date of the letter, FDA will not object to the experimental use of UF milk in Mozzarella and Cheddar.

Cary Frye, vice president, regulatory affairs, International Dairy Foods Association, says the association is actively working on a petition, and she expects that it will be submitted to FDA by the end of the year.

Because the petition is currently being drafted, Frye says she can't say exactly what it will contain. However, it's expected that the petition will aim to add UF milk to the definition of acceptable ingredients for cheesemaking. This would allow for the ultrafiltration of milk at the farm level and the dairy plant level.

Rob Byrne, vice president, regulatory affairs, National Milk Producers Federation, says he believes that changing the definition of milk for cheesemaking is something the entire industry can get behind. But if there's a challenge, it will be on how to define UF milk so that it's not too limited but also not too broad as to allow imported dry products that were not intended for inclusion.

Meanwhile, it's not known how many cheesemakers use UF milk but the general industry consensus is it's "a lot." Though it's not necessarily a problem that UF milk is used in cheese, the fact of the matter is that technology has moved ahead of the U.S. cheese standards in this instance, leaving the standards silent about a product more and more cheesemakers are using.

The problems surrounding the ambiguity have been a long time in coming, but the issue finally came to a head earlier this year when USDA expressed its concern. U.S. cheese standards are FDA standards and are enforced by that agency, but because USDA publishes a list of approved dairy plants, the agency was concerned because it believes people who use that list have a reasonable expectation that the plants listed are producing legal products. To make the point, USDA went so far as to temporarily remove a plant using UF skim milk for standardized cheese from its approved list. USDA says the specific company wasn't targeted but rather USDA believed it needed to take some action because so many plants are using the product.

For its part, this past spring USDA agreed to not take any unfavorable action for six months. And Oct. 4, Richard M. McKee, deputy administrator, Dairy Programs, USDA, sent a letter to IDFA saying that USDA "will continue our current position not to make adverse plant status assignments for those plants using this ingredient for cheese manufacturing. … However this position is predicated upon the timely submission of your petition and the FDA allocating the resources to actively respond to the petition." CMN

Other top stories from this week's issue of Cheese Market News:
• Merc pursues cream contract
• Both sides continue to fight as legislative session nears end
• NMPF to sponsor industry-wide summit aimed at reconciliation among dairy farmers

For more information or to subscribe, click to Cheese Market News.