IDF Bulletins

Milk-determination of lactose content

School feeding programmes are vital for addressing child optimal nutrition, improving school attendance, and supporting vulnerable households. Dairy, a nutrient-dense food, offers key nutrients such as calcium, protein, and vitamin B12, yet its inclusion in school feeding programmes is inconsistent due to cost and logistical challenges. This Bulletin investigates the role of milk and milk products in school feeding programmes across five countries—United States, Mexico, Ireland, Japan, and South Africa—focusing on affordability and nutritional adequacy. Findings reveal that dairy can enhance nutrient adequacy, particularly calcium, without necessarily increasing costs. In some countries, dairy-inclusive meals were among the most affordable. The Bulletin emphasizes the importance of evaluating cost-effectiveness using nutrient-based metrics and recommends culturally appropriate, affordable strategies to integrate dairy into school feeding programmes for improved child nutrition.

Antimicrobial resistance is an urgent global health challenge, and if left unaddressed, has the risk of growing out of control. The fluid nature of the microbial genome means that activities in either the medical, veterinary, or environmental sectors are likely to have impacts on each of the others. In this context, the livestock production sector is taking steps towards more targeted antimicrobial use, with the dairy sector leading the efforts. All stakeholders, namely farmers, veterinarians, food processing, pharmaceutical, distribution, stock feed producers and competent authorities have roles to play to support antimicrobial stewardship. The revised guide lists some of the steps that each of these groups can take in this effort. For the dairy farmers and the veterinarians, the focus lies in effective disease prevention and appropriate treatment and maintaining high levels of biosecurity and overall animal husbandry. Food processing companies support this effort through quality assurance frameworks. Pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributers, stockfeed producing companies are involved through Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and the supply of approved, high-quality antimicrobials. Finally, steps from the competent authorities are aimed at regulating and monitoring the use of antimicrobials and surveillance of antimicrobial resistance.

Chlorine-based products are widely used in both dairy farming and dairy processing as effective equipment cleaners and sanitizers, as well as for teat disinfection. They have antimicrobial activity against a wide variety of bacteria, virus, and fungi. The critical overall parameter required to achieve a lessening of chlorine derivative residues in milk is the appropriate use of the cleaning or sanitizing product according to manufacturer label recommendations. Some chlorine containing products, particularly if improperly used, have the potential to generate chemical residues, some of which give rise to human health concerns. The residues in milk potentially arising from the use of chlorine based cleaning and sanitizing solutions are chlorite, chlorate, perchlorate, trichloromethane (TCM), cyanurate, and chlorhexidine. Regulatory agencies in several geographies have developed tolerance levels for one or more of these substances using a “reasonable certainty of no harm” approach. This document provides an overview of the chlorine containing compounds in use in the dairy supply chain, the possible occurrence of residues, their potential risk to human health, regulatory limits, detection methods, and mitigation strategies to minimize the risk of residues present in dairy products. Ultimately the risk of deleterious residue levels in dairy products is greatly reduced if: 1) chlorine containing compounds are stored, prepared, and used in full accordance with recommendations and labelling, 2) there is adequate rinsing, and 3) there is adherence to commonly accepted Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs).

This bulletin discusses the sampling and sub-sampling methodologies for cheese and the analytical methodologies for salt determination. It describes especially the two possible approaches (using the chloride or the sodium content), their limitations and advantages and disadvantages.

The World Dairy Situation Report 2023

Prevention of the development of chlorate in the dairy chain

Practical considerations of sampling when monitoring dairy food production

Moisture content of dried milk and dried milk products – Complementary international collaborative study

Proceedings of the 7th and 8th IDF Paratuberculosis Fora

DF Global Marketing Trends Report

Survey on the Implementation of the CAC General Standard for the Use of Dairy Terms (GSUDT- Survey)

The IDF global Carbon Footprint standard for the dairy sector

C-Sequ LCA guidelines for calculating carbon sequestration in cattle production systems

The World Dairy Situation Report 2022

Eco-friendly and energy-saving dairy technologies.

Heat treatment of milk.

Guidelines for defining quarter and udder health status and cured clinical and subclinical mastitis cases

Inventory of microbial food cultures with safety demonstration in fermented food products

Identification of Probiotics at the strain level - Guidance Document

The World Dairy Situation 2021.

Guidance on the application of conversion equations for determination of microbiological quality of raw milk.

Inventory, evaluation and perspectives on methods for determination of somatic cell count.

Lactose, an important nutrient: Advocating a revised policy approach for dairy & its intrinsic sugar