An Overview of the Grade “A” Dairy Program
Products Regulated
Grade "A" milk and milk products
such as fluid/bottled milk; cottage cheese; yogurt; milk products
including whey and dry milk.
Federal Regulatory Authority
U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services, Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
FDA develops, along with the 50 States and
Puerto Rico, a model document called the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance (PMO). In
Nevada, NAC
584 adopts the PMO as law. All Grade "A" products must come from dairy
farms and dairy plants that meet the requirements of the PMO in order to be
shipped interstate. FDA publishes a quarterly Interstate Milk Shipper's
List of qualified sources of Grade "A" raw milk and processed milk
products to ship interstate. FDA maintains a web site called the Interstate
Milk Shippers List (IMS List), where sources of
Grade "A" raw milk and processed milk products qualified to ship interstate
can be found.
FDA provides oversight to develop and maintain
a uniform interpretation of the PMO nationwide. They "Check Rate" all
groups of dairy farms and dairy plants approximately every five years to
evaluate compliance with the PMO.
2019
Grade A Pasteurized Milk Ordinance
State Regulatory Authority
Nevada Department of Agriculture, Animal
Industries Division, Food Safety
Nevada adopts the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance
(PMO) as law and implements the requirements. Nevada also has a Manufacturing
dairy law that covers other products such as frozen desserts (ice cream) or
butter, which are not Grade "A" products.
The Animal Industries Division provides
oversight to develop and maintain a uniform interpretation of the PMO,
statewide. These Ratings or Surveys are conducted on all groups of Grade
"A" dairy farms and dairy plants at least once every two years. A
farm group or plant must score at least 90% to qualify to be listed in the
quarterly Interstate Milk Shipper's List as an approved source of Grade
"A" milk and milk products. FDA certifies the State Rating Officers
every three years to conduct these ratings.
The state also provides local inspectors who
inspect each Grade "A" dairy farm at least once every six months and
dairy plants at least once every three months. These inspections are used to
evaluate compliance with and enforce compliance of the PMO sanitation
requirements.
The state inspectors also collect samples of
raw and processed dairy products at each Grade "A" dairy plant. These
samples are analyzed for many parameters including bacteria counts, somatic
cell counts, drug residues, temperature, butterfat levels, water content, and
phosphatase in the processed (pasteurized) products.
The commercial dairy industry, under the
supervision of the Animal Industries Division, collects and analyzes samples of
milk from each dairy farm monthly for temperature, bacteria counts, somatic
cell counts, and drug residues. Likewise, the dairy industry samples each
tanker truckload of milk, daily, for inhibitors.
Applicable Laws and Regulations
NRS
584, NAC
584