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USDA Finalizes Slight Change to Federal Orders On November 24, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a final rule to permanently reclassify milk used to produce evaporated milk or sweetened condensed milk in consumer-type packages from Class III to Class IV in the Federal Milk Marketing Order system. Dairy producers in the 10 federal orders approved the change recently in a required referendum.The official implementation date of the final rule is December 1. In fact, the industry has been complying with the reclassification since USDA issued an interim final decision on April 23. This final rule is the result of a public hearing held in October 2003, where there was no opposition to the changes eventually adopted by USDA. As previously reported in News Update, IDFA's Legislative and Economic Policy Committees had reviewed the proposal prior to the hearing and expressed no opposition. To read the official USDA notices on this reclassification, click here or contact the IDFA economic policy group at 202/737-4332.
Posted December 6, 2004
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