International Dairy Federation releases new publication on Integrated Supply Chain Management

Recent food crises have highlighted the sharp need for the prevention of possible adulteration of suppliers' milk through the implementation of integrated chain management principles. As part of the dairy sector's commitment to food safety, the International Dairy Federation (IDF) has just released a new publication on "Integrated Supply Chain Management".

This new IDF Bulletin provides principles on Integrated Chain Management, guidelines on the integrity of suppliers' milk and examples of approaches and means. These tools, procedures and methods can be used separately or combined to counteract systematic and/or large scale adulteration of suppliers´ milk. Widespread use of this guide will further reinforce consumer confidence in the milk industry's ability to guarantee safe and nutritious products.

Commenting on the IDF guide, Richard Doyle, IDF President said: "I am very pleased with the leadership role IDF is playing in addressing the need to put in place more robust procedures and systems. These guidelines provide a practical approach from dairy experts throughout the dairy chain."

The development process of the guide follows a rigorous and science-based approach. Claus Heggum, leader of the Task Force in charge of the publication said: "After the melamine crisis in 2008, IDF launched two initiatives in parallel. The first one directly addressed the immediate concern regarding the development of an International Standard for the Determination of melamine and cyanuric acid in milk, milk products and infant formula (ISO/TS 15495|IDF/RM 230:2010). The second one aimed at anticipating other actions that could compromise the integrity of milk in the supply chain in the future, with the development of these guidelines. A specific Task Force was quickly set up, gathering experts from the whole dairy chain. "These guidelines, which fit into IDF principles for integrated chain management for food safety, are partly illustrated by a paper on Fourier Transform Infrared technology for routine milk screening, identified as one of the measure to prevent possible adulteration of milk."