UN Abandons Efforts to Standardize Quality of Processed Cheese

A United Nations food standards committee which has been meeting regularly in New Zealand has abandoned its efforts to set a new global standard for processed cheese.

The Codex Alimentarius Commission's dairy committee in Auckland has agreed to discontinue work on a new standard for processed cheese products, because members could not agree on key issues such as how much actual cheese the products should contain.

Processed cheese is used in foods such as pizza toppings, hamburgers and sandwich fillings, and can also contain milkfat, vegetable oil, emulsifiers and homogenisers.

"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," said the committee chairman, Dr. Steve Hathaway.

Chair of the committee's meetings for 10 years, he said the dispute was only the second time in the committee's 16 years delegates could not agree on an issue—the other being naming rights for parmesan cheese. Hathaway, science director of the New Zealand Food Safety Authority, emphasized that in both cases the disagreement was not about food safety.

The committee wrapped up its final meeting by setting a standard for fermented milk, which was often sold in a yoghurt and fruit juice mix claimed to have beneficial bacteria for gut health.

The fermented milk drinks, such as smoothies, yoghurts and kefir products, would be required to contain at least 40 percent dairy ingredients, and be labeled with their amounts of fermented milk and added water.

The Codex Committee on Milk and Milk Products also agreed to replace its endorsement for many American Association of Analytical Chemists (AOAC) testing methods with analytical methods supported by the International Dairy Federation and the International Organization for Standardisation (ISO).

Source: MediaWorks, New Zealand