|
|
|
|
|
|
| FDA claim calcium, vitamin D rich foods reduce risk of osteoporosis |
|
|
|
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently announced new rules on health claims regarding calcium and vitamins and they are very important for the dairy industry, according to the National Dairy Council’s Dr. Gregg Miller.
Miller talked about it in Monday’s “DMI Update” and said FDA revised the guidelines on calcium and osteoporosis. He reported that the rules now allow you to talk about calcium and vitamin D and its ability to reduce the risk of developing osteoporosis.
FDA also broadened the claim. Before you had to target young women or Asian women, according to Miller, but now FDA is saying everyone in the population at any age needs calcium and vitamin D for good bone health and to reduce the risk of osteoporosis so food processors, particularly dairy processors, will be able to use this claim on their labels.
For awhile, there seemed to be a calcium bandwagon and calcium was being advertised in a number of products like apple juice and even Tums. You don’t hear of that so much anymore and I asked Miller if that mantle had come back to dairy and he said yes.
More people are looking to dairy, not only for calcium but for vitamin D and for the unique nutrient package that dairy has to offer, Miller said. Dairy offers nine essential nutrients, most of them important for bone health, “so people are coming back to dairy.”
He admits that calcium-fortified products are still available, but Miller believes dairy is beginning to “overtake that healthy halo.” He adds that calcium is a natural part of dairy products so the calcium is more readily absorbed by the body and “people love that naturalness of dairy.”
Cash cheese prices closes at $1.27
Cash cheese prices continued their descent Christmas Week, with block closing the shortened week at $1.27 per pound, down 3.25 cents on the week, 76 cents below a year ago, and just 14 cents above the government support price.
Barrel closed Wednesday at $1.3075, down 4.75 cents on the week, 67.25 cents below a year ago, but 3.75 cents above the blocks. Thirteen cars of block traded hands on the week and none of barrel.
Cash butter closed at $1.14, down 3 cents on the week and 11 cents below a year ago. Only one car was traded.
Cash Grade A and Extra Grade nonfat dry milk closed at 86.5 cents per pound, down a penny and a half on the week. The NASS-surveyed prices were delayed until Dec. 29.
Market Analyst Alan Levitt, editor of the CME’s Daily Dairy Report, said that he’s not sure the price will fall to support but holiday needs have been met and, with the end of the year approaching, no one wants to add inventory. Credit issues mean no one wants to pay for inventory and people are being very passive now.
On the other hand, Levitt said he wouldn’t be surprised if the market bumped up some after the first of the year, once people figure out how much cheese has actually moved over the holiday period.
The market is being driven by intermediate demand, according to Levitt. People don’t want to buy an extra load or hold an extra load in storage and, “If we can get through the next couple weeks, we may actually see a little bit of a bump.”
“It’s been a couple years since cheese has been this cheap,” Levitt said. “And people may look at picking up some more and putting it away in aging programs. You can go too wrong buying cheese at $1.30 in this day and age.”
Butter is at a five and a half year low, having been on a downward spiral the last couple months, once commercial exports dried up.
The CWT program has helped keep some butterfat moving overseas, he said, but it hasn’t been enough so that price is heading toward support just as powder is already.
Pricing hasn’t affected production, yet
Last week’s milk production report shows that the signal still hasn’t got to farmers, according to Levitt. It’s the “quirk of the lags of the pricing signals,” Levitt said, and even though costs are up and profitability isn’t necessarily up, “milk prices have been pretty decent throughout this year.” The All Milk price will average about $18.35, he said, down about 75 cents from a year ago, but still a very strong year.
Producers are still adding cows, Levitt explained, with November cow numbers in the 50 states up 5,000 head in the 50 states and “they haven’t got the signal yet even demand has pulled back and by all rights, supply should be contracting.” “December prices will be decent and January won’t be too bad,” Levitt concluded.
“February is where, by the time the lags flow through that’s where things are really going to bite hard.”
The Agriculture Department’s latest Cold Storage report shows November butter stocks at 120.1 million pounds, down 20 percent or 29.3 million pounds from October, and down 16 percent or 23.1 million from November 2007.
The American cheese inventory stood at 529.2 million pounds, down 2 percent or 10.9 million pounds from October, but 2 percent or 11.8 million above a year ago.
The CME’s Daily Dairy Report points out that the November inventory was the biggest it has ever been for that date and that the October and November drawdown was the smallest since 1996, suggesting a slowdown in sales.
Total cheese stocks amounted to 821.3 million pounds, down 1 percent or 7.7 million pounds from October, but 2 percent or 15.4 million above a year ago. October stock data was revised up 5.5 million pounds.
The CWT program announced this week that it has accepted eight more export assistance bids for the sale of butter, anhydrous milkfat, and whole milk powder. Complete details are posted on our website at www.dairyline.com
Milk price doesn’t look good for ’09
The milk price news is not encouraging as 2008 winds to a close.
The USDA has initiated signup for the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program, which provides payments to farmers when the federal order Class I base price goes below $13.69 per hundredweight (cwt.) and Dairy Profit Weekly Editor Dave Natzke, warned in that current milk futures prices indicate that level could be breached in the first half of 2009, “So it’s time for farmers to act.”
Under the revised program authorized by the 2008 farm bill, the program also includes a “feed cost adjuster,” which adjusts the trigger level when dairy feed costs rise relative to milk prices. Payments are capped at just under 3 million pounds of milk per year, which Natzke said is equal to the annual production of about 145 cows. Dairy farmers should contact their local Farm Service Agency offices to sign up for the program, he said.
December 31, 2008 |
| 1/7/2009 |
|
|
