Let's be clear . . . every glass of milk, every slice of cheese, and all dairy products for that matter are antibiotic free. It doesn't matter whether it's produced on an organic or conventional dairy farm.

That's because every load of milk delivered to dairy processing plants is tested for the presence of antibiotics. Any load that tests positive for drug residues is discarded. It never enters the food chain.

When it comes to positive tanker loads of milk for antibiotic residues, that number is at an all-time low. Just last year, only 371 loads out of 3,072,702 loads tested positive. That's 0.012 percent. Data for this report comes from the National Milk Drug Residue Database.

To further document declining residue rates, and more importantly the dairy farmer commitment to delivering a safe milk supply, annual data from the National Milk Drug Residue Database can be found in the graph dating back to 1997. Every year depicts either declining or stable numbers.

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(c) Hoard's Dairyman Intel 2016
March 7, 2016