It's a wrap for milk and cheese

New Zealand’s reputation as the land of milk and cheese was reinforced when an international milk and milk products standard setting body met here and successfully wrapped up 16 years of work.

More than 130 delegates from 34 member countries and 5 observer organisations convened last week in Auckland for the ninth session of the Codex Committee on Milk and Milk Products (CCMMP), which sets globally-accepted food standards for international trade in these products.

Science director of the New Zealand Food Safety Authority, Dr Steve Hathaway, who has chaired the committee’s meetings for the past 10 years, is delighted it has completed its ambitious work programme.

“Having robust and scientifically-justified standards for a wide range of dairy commodities helps smooth the way for their trade, which is a great advantage for modern and efficient dairying nations like New Zealand, which provides a third of world dairy exports.”

The last six CCMMP meetings have been held in New Zealand.

“Hosting the meetings has enabled us to showcase our products and technology, and delegates have been able to taste our world-class dairy products, as well as see how our dairy industry operates both at the manufacturing and retail level,” Dr Hathaway says.

Fonterra’s regulatory and food assurance manager Roger Hall is a member of the New Zealand delegation to CCMMP. He says having internationally-agreed dairy standards is invaluable in helping the company trade with more than 140 markets globally, and they help maintain the value for dairy commodities.

“New Zealand is recognised around the world for the safety and quality of our dairy products,” Mr Hall says.

“The work of CCMMP on developing global standards has provided a greater level of customer and consumer assurance around the integrity, safety and quality of our dairy products in international trade. It is also very important to the value of Fonterra’s export sales that global standards are set to ensure that dairy commodities made to an appropriate standard are not undercut by lower quality products.”.

At last week’s meeting the committee adopted a new draft standard for drinks based on fermented milk, which are growing in popularity particularly in Asia. It will ensure such drinks contain at least 40% fermented milk, a contentious limit for some delegations to CCMMP, and that the label clearly reflect the milk content.

“This allows all products, whether they contain the minimum or higher amounts of fermented milk to be traded freely and leaves it to the consumer to decide which they prefer,” Dr Hathaway says.

The committee agreed to discontinue work to develop a new standard for processed cheese products as there was lack of agreement on key issues such as their composition.

“This means the trade of processed cheese will continue to be driven by the requirements and specifications operating in different markets under bilateral agreement with each trading partner setting the criteria for what they want a processed cheese to look like.”

This is only the second time in the committee’s 16 years that delegates could not agree to progress an issue and Dr Hathaway emphasises that in both cases it was not about food safety.

“It’s about trading partners wanting to advance their national interests and positions. They couldn’t decide on a definition and they will now continue to use their own one. Fortunately, international trade is not currently hampered by the lack of an international standard for this product”

The committee did recommend revoking the existing processed cheese standards, which were prescriptive and didn’t allow for the use of new technology or modern ingredients. “Removing the old standards opens the way for product innovation, which New Zealanders are very good at,” Dr Hathaway says.

New Zealand exports of dairy product account for a third of the global trade and bring $11.3 billion in annual earnings.

Background information:

The Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex) was established in 1962 by the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. New Zealand has been a member of Codex since its inception.

The primary purpose of Codex is to establish a body of international standards and related texts for use by the 183 member nations, for consumer health protection and international trade. These standards are recognised as international benchmarks for many developed and developing countries.

During its tenure the CCMMP has developed some 40 standards covering various cheeses, milk powders, creams, fermented milks, casein and other products containing dairy and non dairy ingredients. The committee has also successfully established a standard for the use of dairy terms.

As the CCMPP’s work programme has been completed the committee has been adjourned. There is opportunity to reactivate the committee if and when it becomes necessary to develop new standards or revise existing ones.