The guidelines have been developed by trade associations Dairy UK and DairyCo, the Carbon Trust and major dairy processors, and apply the methodology of wider industry policy document PAS 2050.
Drafted by the Carbon Trust, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and the British Standards Institute in 2008, PAS 2050 claimed to be the first international standard for firms to measure the carbon footprint of goods and services.
Policy briefing paper
Dairy UK has also published a policy briefing paper stating how it believes the competitiveness of the UK dairy industry can be improved ahead of reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), with European Commission (EC) reform proposals due later this year, ahead of post-2013 budget decisions.
The paper states that the EU should promote efficiency in agricultural production, free it from “trade liberalisation” processes, and meet rising global food demand without interfering in the agricultural development of other countries.
Common food policy
Dairy UK also believes that dairy industry stakeholders should receive assistance to help them cope with price volatility, and that the CAP should not become an “EU Common Food Policy”.
The last issue was crucial, Dairy UK policy director Peter Dawson told FoodManufacture.co.uk: “The overriding intention is to provide a common EU policy on human health and nutrition issues, and although there are no specific budgetary implications, there are problems when you try to manipulate one central policy lever.
“Regarding the UK dairy industry, EU regulations on labelling in particular could prove a nightmare for our members. Put simply, an all-embracing food policy is too large and unwieldy to work on a centralised basis from Brussels, and involves too many vested interests.”