Food Hygiene Dairy

[Zee Palmer]

Whilefood safety techniques for your favorite dairy foods may seem obvious, they are not always so straightforward. Here are answers to those occasionally tricky questions about keeping nutritious and wholesome milk, cheese, and yogurt safe and delicious for your family to eat or drink.

Properly storing perishable foods like dairy products is usually no problem when your refrigerator/freezer is working as it should. However, problems affecting not only the quality of your food but the safety of it as well occur when the temperature inside the unit rises above safe or acceptable levels when the power goes out.

Dairy foods are perishable and should always be kept cold. Doing so not only ensures flavor but also keeps them safe to eat. After grocery shopping, unpack and store dairy products first, placing milk in the back of the refrigerator, which tends to be the coldest place. Remember to return the milk to the fridge immediately after pouring, too.

If you find yourself with an excess of milk or cheese in the refrigerator, you may consider freezing it. While both milk and cheese will remain safe to eat when frozen, the taste and consistency of milk changes, and cheese often becomes crumbly when thawed. If you try it, label the containers with the date. You can freeze milk for up to three months and shredded/hard cheeses for up to six months.

On the other hand, yogurt can be frozen for up to two months without a change in taste and texture. This can be a money-saving trick, allowing you to stock up when your favorite yogurt is on sale. It can also reduce food waste if you are unable to use yogurt by the date on the package. Here are some useful dairy freezing tips.

Food safety should always be a top concern when buying, handling, cooking and storing foods. Being informed about general storage guidelines, as well as how to protect foods during a power outage, will help preserve the quality and safety of the foods you serve your family.

Provides guidance to the store about how long to display the product for sale. While this date allows for a reasonable amount of time for you to use the food at home, you should buy the product before this date passes.

Many steps go into ensuring that the milk and dairy foods you love deliver the flavor, texture, and unique nutrition profile you expect. From cow care to the use of sterilized equipment to hold and efficiently transport fresh milk, to numerous food safety, quality, and sanitation checks along the way, milk and dairy foods are among the most highly regulated foods in the supermarket.

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Each year, roughly one out of six Americans (or 48 million people) gets sick; 128,000 are hospitalized; and 3,000 die from foodborne diseases. The food industry is responsible for producing safe food. Government agencies are responsible for setting food safety standards, conducting inspections, and monitoring food products, including imports. Consumers also play a huge role in keeping their food safe and wholesome. Simple steps like purchasing foods from an approved source, cooking food thoroughly, practicing good hygiene when handling foods, and proper food storage can help reduce the risk of foodborne illness. The link below offer tips for consumers to help keep their food safe.

FoodSafety.gov is the gateway to food safety information provided by government agencies, including the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), all of which serve important roles in ensuring food safety in the U.S.

The primary responsibility of the Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development (MDARD) is to assure the safety and wholesomeness of Michigan's food supply. MDARD regularly monitors Michigan's food supply for pesticide residues, micro-organisms, and other substances that would compromise the quality and wholesomeness of the food we eat. That long-standing commitment to a safe food supply has earned Michigan a national reputation for strictly enforcing the state's food and dairy laws. MDARD inspectors monitor Michigan's food supply at each step in the food chain, and helps assure that food stays safe from the farm the farm gate to your dinner plate.

If you have a question or concern about food you or your family has purchased or eaten, please call the Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development toll-free at 800-292-3939 or send an e-mail to MDA-...@Michigan.gov. You will be connected with someone who can answer your question or help address your concern. If you have become ill and suspect foodborne illness, please seek medical attention. If possible, save any leftover suspect food and its packaging in a sealed plastic bag or container and store it in the freezer. If foodborne illness is confirmed, this food sample may be helpful in determining the source of contamination. You may also file a food safety complaint online through the MDARD online complaint form.

About

The Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development (MDARD) works to assure food safety, protect animal and plant health, sustain environmental stewardship, provide consumer protection, enable rural development and foster efficient administration operations through service, partnership and collaboration.

At MDARD, we encourage and embrace innovation, creativity, and growth, so we can provide the best possible service to our food and agriculture businesses, communities, and colleagues. As a department, we are committed to a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment that builds upon our values and invests in our employees and provides an inclusive culture through involvement and empowerment.

The Food Safety Division enforces federal and state laws and rules relating to the production of food and food products that are derived from animals. Inspectors ensure the citizens of Oklahoma that the food supply derived from meat, poultry, eggs and milk is safe and labeled correctly. Organic standards are also enforced by this division through inspection and certification. This division also works with the Food and Drug Administration to administer the Food Safety Modernization Act that addresses produce safety.

Samples of milk from dairy farms and sample of each product packaged by the processing plants (yogurt, cheese, ice cream, etc.) are collected at least four out of each six months. The samples are then analyzed to determine if the milk or packaged dairy products meet the required federal safety standards.

ODAFF has a Federal Trust Cooperative Agreement with the United States Department of Agriculture to conduct poultry and egg grading. This section provides uniform and cost effective inspection and certification of poultry, eggs and egg products to ensure customer satisfaction and safety at all levels of production including processing, wholesale, retail and food service. Duties include performing shell egg and egg product inspection at retailers, dealers and packers, performing poultry and poultry parts and products inspection, providing shell egg surveillance inspections at producers and hatcheries.

The Poultry and Egg Grading programs are cooperative agreements between ODAFF and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS). ODAFF Graders provide a federal grading service inside egg and poultry processing facilities.

The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) created the Produce Safety Rule, which is the first federal regulations for on-farm food safety for produce farms. ODAFF has a grant from the FDA to do the education, outreach and inspection for produce farmers in Oklahoma. Sign up for the Produce Safety Newsletter HERE.

Produce is defined as any fruit or vegetable (including mixes of intact fruits and vegetables) and includes mushrooms, sprouts (irrespective of seed source), peanuts, tree nuts, and herbs. The definition of a vegetable includes the harvested part of any plant or fungus whose fruit, fleshy fruiting bodies, seeds, roots, tubers, bulbs, stems, leaves, or flower parts are used as food.

Produce does not include food grains meaning the small, hard fruits or seeds of arable crops that are primarily grown and processed for use as meal, flour, baked goods, cereals and oils. Examples of food grains include barley, dent- or flint-corn, sorghum, oats, rice, rye, wheat, amaranth, quinoa, buckwheat, and oilseeds (e.g., cotton seed, flax seed, rapeseed, soybean, and sunflower seed).

Any farm that sells a 3-year average of less than $25,000 per year in produce is exempt from this law. If you sell more than that, then you are required to annually register with ODAFF.

Complete the Oklahoma Produce Farm Registration form HERE

After you complete the form, we will determine if you are eligible for any other exemptions and inform you by e-mail how you may be able to be exempt and how to claim that exemption.

The Qualified Exemption is for farms that sell a 3-year average of less than $500,000 a year of all foods, and at least 50% or more of that food is sold directly to the consumer or a restaurant or retail store within the state of Oklahoma or within 275 miles of your farm. If you are Qualified Exempt, you will need to have records to prove your exemption. We have created a Microsoft Excel template to help you determine if you are Qualified Exempt and help you to create an acceptable record that is required by this law to prove this exemption.

Produce Safety Alliance Grower Training Course

We are working with the experts at the Robert M. Kerr Food and Agricultural Products Center at Oklahoma State University to teach the Produce Safety Alliance curriculum for growers across the state. To get notified of future classes, sign up for our e-mail newsletter using this link.

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