Did you know that there are currently 97 federal standards of identity for various dairy products out of a total of 262 standards for all foods, including dairy? The dairy industry has a disproportionate number-37%-and cheese has the largest proportion of the dairy standards. Even worse, few of the dairy standards have been updated to allow for advancements in formulating, processing or packaging.
"And old standards, without flexibility to be modernized, don't necessarily serve us well in a new global reality," according to Connie Tipton, president and CEO of IDFA. "The problem is, new products or processing technologies often do not fit the traditional definitions of standard dairy products . . . Such rules clearly restrict our options and restrain our innovation as a global dairy power . . ."