Is that milk really milk?
Yesterday, we discussed how the cost of 2% milk in your state compares to the cost in others. While we were busy dipping our Oreos, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is setting out to define milk.
The FDA is seeking public comments on the labeling of products such as milk, cultured milk, yogurt, and cheese. The comments are part of an effort to determine whether applying the same terminology to both animal and plant-based products misleads consumers, according to a statement by FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb.
“The FDA has concerns that the labeling of some plant-based products may lead consumers to believe that those products have the same key nutritional attributes as dairy products, even though these products can vary widely in their nutritional content,” Gottlieb stated on the agency’s website. “It is important that we better understand consumers’ expectations of these plant-based products compared to dairy products.”
Thirty-seven state farm bureaus and agricultural associations sent a letter to the FDA in July urging the agency to enforce an existing regulation that allows only the product from lactating animals to be labeled as milk. Gottlieb later stated that the FDA planned to issue new guidance to begin enforcing the regulation. Although guidance documents are not legally binding, they serve to explain, interpret, or advise interested parties about an agency's rules, laws, and procedures.
Sales of plant-based milk rose 9 percent over the last year, according to Nielsen data released in August. Sales of cow's milk, on the other hand, fell 3.5 percent from 2013 to 2017, according to research by the agricultural lender Rabobank.
FDA will accept electronic or written public comments on the labeling of milk products through November 27.
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