The U.S. National Committee of the International Dairy Federation (US-IDF) held a strategic planning session last week in Rosemont, Ill., to enhance its leadership role for the U.S. dairy industry on global scientific and technical issues.
Representing dairy processors at the meeting were Cary Frye, IDFA vice president of regulatory and scientific affairs and chairman of US-IDF, and John Allan, IDFA vice president of regulatory and international standards and deputy chair for the International Dairy Federation Food Standards and Labeling Committee. They were joined by US-IDF members from Dairy Management Inc., the National Milk Producers Federation, USDA Agriculture Marketing Service, American Dairy Products Association, University of Wisconsin Dairy Research, Center, the Global Dairy Platform, Davisco Foods, Abbott Nutrition, Page & Patterson, and Elanco.
US-IDF members created an action plan to align its efforts with the new International Dairy Federation’s (IDF) Strategic Work Programme (2016-2018), which IDF unveiled last November during its business meetings in Vilnius, Lithuania. The U.S. group also examined areas for expanding its leadership role through potential new activities, increased member engagement in the work of IDF, changes to IDF’s existing structure and representation, and the development of other US-IDF positions.
The strategic plan developed last week covered several actions, including:
- Identifying US-IDF individuals to act as leaders by coordinating information between IDF and US-IDF for each of the focus areas of work; food safety and quality, nutrition, sustainability and standards;
- Developing and holding webinars on key topic areas of IDF’s work for US-IDF members and inviting potential members to attend;
- Packaging success stories and issuing summary points that can be shared with US-IDF members and the dairy industry about the work that IDF undertakes; and
- Expanding US-IDF expertise and involvement in IDF activities by identifying additional contacts and subject matter experts within the existing US-IDF members’ companies and associations.
“These steps taken by US-IDF will ensure that the U.S. dairy industry can expand its role in the opportunities IDF’s new strategy will bring,” said Frye. “They will also allow US-IDF to better represent the industry’s interests in the IDF focus areas of nutrition, sustainability, food safety and quality and standards of dairy, while enhancing communication on global scientific and technical issues for our members.”
About US-IDF
The US-IDF is one of several national committees that work together as the International Dairy Federation to serve as the scientific expertise for the dairy sector worldwide. Members of the committee provide the U.S. perspective to better protect and enhance the U.S. dairy industry. A list of members is available here.
For more information, contact Frye at cfrye@idfa.org.