Cheese Foods Tests Conducted by Firms Listing MPC on Their Food Products’ Ingredients Labels
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Special Supplement to The Milkweed October 2002 $2.00 Each MMilkilk ProteinProtein ConcentrateConcentrate What IS This MPC ‘Stuff?’ by Pete Hardin What is Milk Protein Concentrate (MPC)? Debating MPC issues is tough, because the fed- eral Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has no definition for this high-protein dairy powder. No definition exists for MPC because MPC is NOT an approved food ingredient under FDA rules. Hard to believe that FDA has no actual defini- tion for MPC. FDA requires all L-E-G-A-L ingredi- ents in human foods to pass exacting safety tests, defined by the “Generally Recognized As Safe” (GRAS) criteria. According to statements by high- level FDA personnel: • the government has not conducted GRAS safety tests on MPCs. • no private firm has informed FDA of GRAS safety tests completed on MPCs. Pasteurized Process • no inquiries have been made by FDA about GRAS Cheese Foods tests conducted by firms listing MPC on their food products’ ingredients labels. These Kraft Foods products are illegal. They are marketed as “Pasteurized Process Cheese See no evil. Hear no evil. Speak no evil. Food” but contain MPC. Pasteurized Processed Cheese Food is a standard of identity under FDA So, what is MPC? Perhaps the best answer to laws. FDA rules specify that no unapproved ingredients (like MPC) may be in Pasteurized Process that question comes by stating what MPC is NOT. Cheese Food products. MPC is not legal. Despite that fact, tens of thousands of metric tons of MPC enter the U.S. each year—for use in human foods. That data is available from the U.S. Kraft Packages Detail MPC Use Customs Service. Adulterated. Misbranded. Illegal. (g) “It purports to be or is represented as a food Thank you, Kraft Foods. Dairy analysts were We must go beyond FDA to achieve a defini- for which a definition and standard of identity has puzzled, wondering where all that imported Milk tion for MPC. The World Trade Organization (WTO) been prescribed by regulations such as provided by Protein Concentrate (MPC) was being used. But then has definitions for MPCs. WTO is evolving as the Section 401, unless it 1) conforms to such definition we carefully inspected the ingredients labels on many global rule-making authority for food safety, stan- and standard, and its label bears the name of the food Kraft Foods products in supermarkets. Thank you, dards and definitions. If WTO rules evolve as specified in the definition and standard and, 2) inso- Kraft Foods, for having the integrity to list MPC as globalist bureaucrats hope, WTO standards for dairy far as may be required by regulations, the common an ingredient on over three dozen of your consumer product safety will take precedence over domestic names of optional ingredients (other than spices, fla- food products sold in supermarkets across this na- rules. WTO rules will supercede all national rules voring, and coloring) present in the food. tion. on import regulation. When fully in place, WTO dairy Kraft “Singles” that contain MPC are sold as Special thanks, Kraft Foods, for using MPC in standards will be the standard for the global dairy “Pasteurized Process Cheese Food”—an FDA stan- most versions of Kraft “Singles.” No doubt about it: trade. Nations that try to restrict dairy imports based dard of identity. Presence of MPC renders such Kraft Kraft “Singles” containing MPC are illegal. Kraft upon quality or safety issues can be penalized if the “Singles” illegally adulterated. identifies “Singles” as “Pasteurized Process Cheese imports in question meet WTO standards. Food.” That’s a standard of identity under federal FDA’s simple definition of “adulterated” goes WTO defines MPC as a dry blend of dairy in- Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rules. Zero like this: “Something in a product that should not be gredients, ranging from 42 to 90% protein. That’s unapproved ingredients are allowed in cheese and there, or is missing, that creates a safety or quality the simple definition. (For a more technical discus- cheese products sold under FDA standards of iden- concern.” Should MPC be in Kraft “Singles” that sion, see page C of this special section.) tity. are sold as “Pasteurized Process Cheese Food?” (WTO wonks are trying to make dairy prod- Take a close look at the package of Kraft Same for Oscar Mayer’s “Lunchables.” In sev- ucts and ingredients from water buffalo milk legal. “Singles” at the top of this page. You see Kraft eral versions of “Lunchables,” Kraft Foods includes Water buffalo are a key dairy animal in Third World “Singles”—American—“Pasteurized Process Cheese a cheese component identified as “Pasteurized Pro- nations—just don’t ask too many questions about Food” on the front panel. cess Cheese Food.” On the list of ingredients, one safety and quality of the resulting dairy products.) Turn over the package to see the list of ingredi- finds “Milk Protein Concentrate.” Adulterated. Mis- It’s obvious that MPCs are being used in hu- ents: branded. Illegal. On a wider basis, critics charge that any hu- man foods. The Milkweed has collected nearly four “Milk, whey, water, milkfat, MILK PROTEIN man foods containing MPC are illegal. MPC, very dozen human foods and dietary supplements that list CONCENTRATE ….” on their ingredients’ labels. Some of the nation’s big- simply, is not an approved food ingredient under FDA gest firms (Kraft Foods, Hershey Foods, Slim-Fast, No doubt about it. Kraft “Singles”—marketed rules. Mead/Johnson Nutritionals) use MPCs in a variety as “Pasteurized Process Cheese Product”—contains of human food, nutrition and pharmaceutical prod- Milk Protein Concentrate. It’s right on the label. ucts. (See page F in this special section for our list of “Pasteurized Process Cheese Food” is defined Help get the word out! MPC-laden human food products.) under FDA rules by 21 C.F.R., Subpart B, section This special report was produced by MPCs enter the U.S. from a variety of coun- 133.173. MPC is not an approved ingredient in “Pas- the staff of The Milkweed, a dairy tries around the world. New Zealand and Australia teurized Process Cheese Food.” marketing report for farmers. Addi- ship are the two biggest sources. But many other FDA rules specify, under Section 402 [343], that tional copies of this report are avail- nations send MPCs to the U.S., including some of a human food is “Misbranded” if: able for $2.00 each, minimum order lesser sanitary and human health conditions, like In- of 5 copies. Send your check to: The dia, China, Argentina, Lithuania, Mexico and Poland. (a) “If its labeling is false or misleading in any particular.” Milkweed, P.O. Box 10, Brooklyn, WI 53521 Continued on Page B (b) “It is offered for sale under the name of an- other food.” MPC Supplement -- A Boycott of MPC Food Products Launched Farm Groups & The Milkweed Blaska warned that the MPC battle is only a Zimmerman acknowledged faith that the Lord smaller part of a greater conflict—the global “Free- will provide for her family, but she worried who Announce Boycott of Human Trade” danger. would provide the milk for this nation if so many Foods Containing Milk dairy farmers go out of business due to horrid milk Protein Concentrate Mary Zimmerman, a Green County, Wiscon- prices. sin dairy farm woman, spoke of her family’s chal- by Pete Hardin lenges trying to keep their dairy farm. Zimmerman Joel Greeno, a Monroe County, Wisconsin related how in early September, the Farmers’ Home dairy producer and president of the American Raw On October 3, two farm groups and The Milk- Administration served a 90-day foreclosure notice on Milk Producers Pricing Assn., demanded that weed announced they were starting a consumer boy- her dairy, giving the family 90 days to come up with Wisconsin’s agriculture department remove from cott against human foods containing Milk Protein the $183,000 outstanding loan volume. The family supermarket shelves all Kraft “Singles” and Concentrate (MPC). has farmed for over 30 years on their 260-acre farm. “Lunchables” marketed as “Pasteurized Process Further demands include: Zimmerman blamed low milk prices for many Cheese Food” but containing MPC. Greeno issued of the family’s economic challenges. She noted that an October 21 deadline for state officials to pull ob- • That Wisconsin’s state Department of Agri- during the past three years, there only had been about viously illegal products from store shelves. If not, culture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) five or six months of decent milk prices. Zimmerman Greeno promised that angry dairy farmers would visit immediately pull from shelves obviously illegal prod- cited the “chronic milk price wasting disease” that’s the state Capitol shortly thereafter – about Oct. 23. ucts such as Kraft Food’s “Singles” and afflicting virtually all dairy farms, due to imports. Further, Greeno asked for a moratorium against “Lunchables,” in instances where these products are farm foreclosures. described by the manufacturer as “Pasteurized Pro- She told an unnerving tale of how, on a recent cess Cheese Food” that contain MPC. evening she was leaving the barn when a stranger Pete Hardin, editor/publisher of The Milkweed, drove up to the farm. The visitor, an older woman, • That a moratorium be placed on farm foreclo- detailed the specific illegality of products such as asked, “Are you Mary Zimmerman?” When Mary sures because of the impact that massive dairy prod- Kraft “Singles” and “Lunchables” marketed the way replied affirmatively, the visitor then asked if Mary’s uct imports are having on farm milk prices. they are while containing MPC. Hardin described the husband, Paul, was also at home.