Dannon has begun marketing yogurt made with non-genetically modified ingredients. Increasing global demand for pizza cheese is good news for the U.S. dairy industry. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is allowing milk processors to add more vitamin D. This and other U.S. dairy industry news can be found here.
Dannon begins marketing non-GMO yogurt
Dannon has begun marketing yogurt made with non-genetically modified (non-GMO) ingredients, the company announced. It is the beginning of a pledge to ensure dairy cows supplying milk for its three flagship brands – Dannon, Oikos and Danimals – will be fed non-GMO feed by 2018.
Read: ‘Dannon Pledge’ includes sourcing milk from cows fed non-GMO
Dannon has partnered with non-government organizations (NGOs) Green America and the Non-GMO Project to develop sources of non-GMO cow feed, including third-party audits and verification of those sources.
Beginning in early 2017, Dannon will work with feed suppliers and its farmer partners to start planting non-GMO feed to ensure the cows supplying milk for the company's three flagship brands will be fed non-GMO feed by 2018.
The company estimates it will take the conversion of 80,000 acres of U.S. farmland to produce non-GMO crops to provide non-GMO feed for the milk used to make Dannon-branded yogurt products.
Additionally, the company joined with Just Label It! Chairman Gary Hirshberg to increase labeling transparency, saying all U.S.-marketed Dannon products containing GMO ingredients will be labeled as such, independent of labeling actions taken by the federal government.
Dannon and the three NGO collaborators participated in a press briefing, uploaded on the company’s YouTube page. (The actual press briefing begins at about minute 12.)
To build awareness for its efforts, Dannon also launched a social media campaign.
Will U.S. get a bigger slice of global pizza cheese growth?
Increasing global demand for pizza cheese is good news for a U.S. dairy industry enduring an ongoing global market imbalance between supply and demand, according to the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC).
The current global dairy climate has sharply intensified global competition among a handful of large exporters aggressively seeking buyers to take up abundant supplies. Consequently, after rising more than six-fold from 2004 to 2014, U.S. cheese export shipments fell 14 percent in 2015 and were down 22 percent through the first five months of 2016.
Nonetheless, opportunities abound for U.S. cheese exporters. USDEC projects a compound annual growth rate of 3.2 percent in overall international cheese trade through 2020. As a subset, pizza cheese exports could grow at nearly double that rate, with USDEC projecting a 5.7 percent per annum growth over the same period. That would mean an additional 100,000 tons of pizza cheese traded internationally each year.
Emerging markets and developed countries present fertile ground for pizza growth, with the greatest opportunity in Asia.
Estimated U.S. per capita consumption of cheese on pizza is more than 8 pounds per year. In Japan, annual per capita pizza cheese consumption is about 4.9 pounds. Per capita consumption in most other nations in the USDEC research ranged from 0.25 to 3 pounds.
Read Global demand for pizza cheese will grow
FDA: Double your vitamin D
A recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) food additive regulation update allows manufacturers of milk and plant-based alternatives to add more vitamin D to their products, according to the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA).
The update will allow milk labels to continue to claim to be an excellent source of vitamin D, even after the daily value for vitamin D is raised in the updated nutrition facts label.
Vitamin D must be declared in the new nutrition facts label starting in 2018.
The regulations now allow double the maximum level of vitamin D previously allowed in milk, up to 84 international units (IU) per 100 grams of milk or 800 IU per quart of milk.
No changes were made to the standard of identity for milk, which still provides for only 400 IU of vitamin D per quart of milk. In order to fortify with the higher levels, milk must be labeled with a nutrient content claim, such as “high vitamin D milk.”
FDA also adjusted the vitamin D limits for plant-based dairy substitutes and plant-based yogurt substitutes. No changes were made to the allowance for vitamin D fortification in yogurt.
CWT assists with export sales
Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) export assistance bids accepted for the week ending July 15:
• Cheese – 756,186 pounds
Bids were accepted from Dairy Farmers of America, Northwest Dairy Association (Darigold) and Tillamook County Creamery Association.
Year-to-date accepted bids:
• Cheese – 29.83 million pounds
• Butter – 6.95 million pounds
• Whole milk powder – 21.98 million pounds
Milk equivalent (milkfat basis) – 590.1 million pounds
Source: National Milk Producers Federation
National Fuel Up To Play 60 Student Summit is July 25-28
The 7th annual Fuel Up to Play 60 (FUTP 60) Student Summit will be held July 25-28, in West Lafayette, Indiana.
More than 150 students from 45 states will meet at Purdue University, where they will receive leadership training and learn how to direct the FUTP 60 program. Students will also have the chance to meet NFL Players, participate in unique physical activities at the Indiana Farm Bureau Football Center, and visit local farms.
FUTP 60 is a partnership between the National Football League (NFL) and the nation’s dairy farmers, in cooperation with the USDA. It is the country’s largest in-school health and wellness program, engaging youth directly as grassroots leaders to increase access to nutrient-rich foods and physical activity at school.
American Dairy Products Institute adds consultants
The American Dairy Products Institute (ADPI) welcomed three industry professionals to its Center of Excellence, a network of advisors created to answer dairy ingredient questions from ADPI members. Joining ADPI as resource specialists are:
• A. Kent Keller, an expert in lactose and permeate manufacturing. In 1980, he founded Whey Systems Inc., which later became Keller Technologies Inc.
• Dr. Andrew Novakovic, dairy market economics and policy specialist at Cornell University.
• Australia-based dairy processing and ingredient science expert Dr. Geoffrey Smithers.
ADPI is a national trade association representing manufacturers and marketers of dairy-based ingredients.
Companies and products
• HP Hood LLC recently received registration for a redesigned “LIGHTBLOCK Bottle,” said to block light that negatively impacts fluid milk flavor and depletes vitamins. Also read: Consumers sour on milk exposed to LED light
• Dairy plants in Buena Park, California, and Braselton, Georgia, were awarded the Dean Food’s CEO Quality Awards for ice cream and fluid milk, respectively. The plants were selected over nearly 70 other Dean’s facilities. The plants are assessed for food safety programs, employee training participation and consumer complaint improvement, as well as quality innovations, best practices and the "quality culture" within the plant.
• New York-based O-AT-KA Milk Products recently celebrated completion of a facility expansion, according to Empire State Development, which provided a $400,000 capital grant to assist the $21 million project. O-AT-KA is owned by the Upstate Niagara Cooperative Inc. and Dairy Farmers of America. Milk is supplied by more than 400 farm members in western, central and the Finger Lakes regions of New York.
• Modesto-based Crystal Creamery is honoring 2016 California high school graduates who excelled in sports and studies. The students are featured on Crystal’s milk cartons, available this summer, according to the Modesto Bee. PD
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Dave Natzke
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