In the CBS series “Without a Trace” which aired from 2002–2009, a specially trained FBI Missing Persons Squad searches for missing people by applying advanced psychological profiling to reveal the victims’ lives. While sourcing and tracking dairy ingredients is not a life or death proposition, more dairy ingredient companies are “cracking the code” to assure they’re supporting transparency and traceability throughout the global supply chain.

Experts note that it makes good business sense for dairy processors to do all they can to ensure that ingredients used within dairy products like milk, cheese, ice cream, yogurt, and cottage cheese can be sourced back to the land where they’re grown. And consumers also want more transparency about the foods they’re eating and drinking. In fact, “73% of global consumers feel more positively about companies that are transparent about where and how products were made, raised or grown,” states a “What’s In Our Food and On Our Mind” report from New York-based research firm Nielsen.