In the near future you may have to ask your barista for almond drink or soy drink, because the FDA may be forcing plant-based milk manufacturers to stop calling their products milk.
The FDA standards of identity for milk state that in order to claim a product as milk, it must be lacteal secretions from a cow. The FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said “almonds don’t lactate,” at a Politico event last week and lamented the agency's lack of enforcement on this issue.
“We must better understand if consumers are being misled as a result of the way the term milk is being applied and making less informed choices as a result,” Gottlieb said in a statement released today regarding the FDA’s decision to review and modernize the agency’s standards of identity for dairy products.
Representatives of the dairy industry have been lobbying for the enforcement of the FDA’s standard of identity for many years, saying that labeling almond milk as milk misleads consumers.
“I think that dairy manufacturers shouldn’t get to be the only ones who get to use the word milk,” said food critic and Senior Editor at The Atlantic Corby Kummer on Boston Public Radio Wednesday.
“Are consumers hoodwinked by this? No, they are looking for dairy milk alternatives because they are allergic to milk, or they don’t want to have it, or they are worried about getting cancer, or they are lactose intolerant,” he continued.
Kummer said he thinks plant-based milk manufacturers are going to maintain the right to call their products milk even if those products do not come from cows. He argued that consumers are not confused about peanut butter not containing any actual dairy butter.
“Would it sell if it was peanut paste? No, probably not,” Kummer said.
