FDA Reaffirms Milk Safety, Supported by NMPF

NMPF reacted to consumer concern over late-April reports of FDA’s temporary suspension of its milk quality proficiency testing program by working with FDA to release an agency statement clarifying what the proficiency testing program is.

“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.”

The program is a minor step in the multi-faceted process of ensuring milk safety; however, amplification of its importance on social media created a potential threat to milk’s reputation, prompting both work with FDA as well as NMPF’s own statement reaffirming milk’s safety and the many quality and safety checks conducted on every batch of milk as it moves from farms to retail stores across the country.

“The U.S. milk supply is safe,” NMPF said in its own statement April 25. “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.”