Efforts to impose added regulations on dairy farms under the new Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) are not warranted because milk leaving farms for further processing is not a significant public health risk from intentional adulteration, the National Milk Producers Federation wrote in comments to the Food and Drug Administration.

The FDA is reviewing comments about the FSMA law, which is the most significant change to food safety legislation in many years. Part of the scope of FSMA is to enhance the safety protocols around foods that may be subject to intentional adulteration, by terrorists looking to threaten or injure people, or cause economic harm to certain companies or industries.

“We disagree with the premise that on-farm milk destined for pasteurization is a high-risk food,” said Beth Briczinski, NMPF’s Vice President of Dairy Foods and Nutrition. Raw fluid milk for pasteurization moves among various regions of the country and is in constant flux to meet specific processing demands. Because of the challenge of predicting the precise processing facility and type of product or ingredient to which an individual farm’s milk is ultimately destined, NMPF concluded that “activities on dairy farms should not be addressed through this rule.”

“Dairy farmers currently implement a number of general security strategies to protect the investment of their property, equipment, animals and milk supply, which further reduce any risk that may be represented by on-farm milk destined for pasteurization,” NMPF wrote.

The organization added that if FDA were to require farms to comply with specific aspects of food defense regulations, such requirements should be developed in close collaboration with federal and state stakeholders, as well as the dairy industry, through the National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments (NCIMS).

The complete release can be found here.