1.   The composition of fluid whole milk is regulated by federal laws that set minimum standards for milk fat and solids nonfat.

2.   Because dioxin gets into humans from milk fat, for example, it is important to know where dairy farms get their dioxin.

3.   But using gas chromatography, the scientists have shown that degraded animal and milk fats have distinctive signatures related to the relative abundance of a particular carbon isotope.

4.   In addition, there is a worldwide shortage of milk fat because Eastern European nations are now buying it.

5.   In the process, the agency tied the price of milk fat to the price of butter at a time when butter prices were unusually high.

6.   Milk fat prices vary depending on whether the milk fat is used for milk, cheese, ice cream or other dairy products.

7.   That pleases dairy farmers because increased demand has caused butter prices to rise, but it has distressed those who buy milk fat.

8.   The changes tie the cost of milk fat to butter.

9.   The department said the higher prices for milk fat come from a slowdown in production rather than from any change in regulatory policy.

10.   The final product contains water droplets, air bubbles, fat globules and ordered crystals of milk fat that form as the churned material cools.