Interesting Post on Milk Protein Concentrate (Updated)

I found a post I found truly fascinating at a blog called The Ethicurean on milk protein concentrate. Some milk producers are pointing to imported MPC as the source of their problems.

I’m not sure the results are in on that although I’m open to arguments both ways.

What certainly seems to be true is that, similar to the situation in automobiles, the world is producing a lot more milk than customers are buying and that’s not good news for American dairy farmers.

Here’s something I found particularly interesting:

Milk protein concentrates are created when milk is ultra-filtered, a process that drains out the lactose and keeps the milk protein and other large molecules. The protein components are then dried and become a powder. That all sounds relatively benign – until we learn that those “other large molecules” can include bacteria and somatic cells; that virtually all MPCs come from other countries, most of them with very poor food safety records (China, India, Poland, the Ukraine); and that the milk used to make MPCs is usually not cows’ milk. More often, it is from water buffalo, yaks, or other animals common to the countries where MPCs are manufactured.

Perhaps because of MPCs’ sketchy origins, they have never been approved as a food ingredient by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (They are, however, a common ingredient in some brands of glue.) The FDA has a list of additives it allows in processed food – the GRAS list, for Generally Recognized as Safe – and MPCs ain’t on it. That means the FDA hasn’t carried out safety tests on MPCs, as the law requires for any additive on the GRAS list.

I was therefore surprised to learn that MPCs are widely used in dairy products manufactured and sold in the United States. Kraft Singles have them, as did most other brands of processed cheese slices that I checked in the grocery store last night. Some snack foods, coffee creamers, candies, and nutritional drinks have them. They’re not approved by the FDA as a food ingredient, but they’re in a whole lot of food.

If that doesn’t make you look twice at some of the stuff at the grocery store, you’ve got a stronger stomach than I do. Here’s a letter sent by the FDA to Kraft seven years ago. That ultimately resulted in re-labelling a number of its products but the products themselves are still on the shelves. Perhaps someone could explain that to me.

Update

From comments: monopoly pricing is hurting dairy farmers.