Domestic Standards
October 3, 2005
FDA Publishes IICA's Petition to Modernize Ice Cream Standards
Kraft's Petition on Aging Parmesan and Reggiano Also Published
Taking an important first step in formal rulemaking, on September 27, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published for comment the International Ice Cream Association's (IICA) 2003 petition to update and improve the federal Standards of Identity governing the manufacture of ice cream and other frozen desserts. IICA commended the agency for its action on the petition, which if adopted, would give ice cream manufacturers the flexibility to use technologies and ingredients that weren't available when the standards were written nearly 30 years ago.
"We're very pleased that FDA is moving forward on the frozen desserts standards petition," said Cary Frye, IDFA vice president of regulatory affairs. "The ice cream industry has had their collective hands tied by decades-old restrictions that thwart innovation. Updating the standards will allow processors to create new and better choices for American consumers."
IICA submitted the petition to FDA in April 2003, after a three-year collaborative process with industry researchers to create the request.
The largest change requested is the removal of outdated restriction on how manufacturers add dairy ingredients to ice cream, and to instead let the manufacturer decide on the best mix of milk ingredients. In particular, this change would allow greater flexibility with using high-quality, fractionated whey and milk proteins — which are constituents of milk — that are now available on the market.
"It's a matter of product quality. Whey proteins offer superior properties in preventing ice crystals, freezing and whipping," Frye noted. "This change would allow the ice cream industry to utilize more whey, which the dairy industry is increasingly recognizing as an exceptional ingredient for its products.
"In fact, there are extensive campaigns in the industry encouraging the use of whey in innovative ways, and the restrictions in the federal standards are preventing that from occurring in the ice cream industry."
Publishing the petition for comment — known as issuing an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) — was ranked as an "A" priority on FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition's list for projects in fiscal year 2005, which ended September 30, 2005.
In the same ANPRM as the ice cream petition, FDA also published Kraft's petition to amend the Standard of Identity for parmesan and reggiano cheese. The company is asking the agency to decrease the minimum curing time from 10 months to six months. (To read the full ANPRM, click here to visit FDA's website.)
Public comments on both petitions will be accepted through December 27, 2005. The IICA Standards Committee will be working in the coming weeks to draft comments urging FDA to move swiftly on the next steps for the association's petition. Member companies interested in participating in this process should contact Cary Frye at cfrye@idfa.org, (202) 220-3543.
BACK