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The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is to crack down on labelling non-dairy drinks as milk later this year.
Speaking at a Politico pro event this week, FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb admitted that although there is a standard of identity which regulates what can be called milk, the standard has not been enforced to outlaw the labelling of non-dairy drinks as milk.
“We have hundreds of standards of identity which are basically regulations that define recipes for how products need to be manufactured in order to call themselves [those products].
An almond doesn’t lactate
“For example, ketchup – how many tomatoes do you need to actually call something ketchup? We had one that delineated how many cherries you need in cherry pie to be able to call it cherry pie.
“But we do have one that delineates what you need to be in order to call yourself milk [sic].
“This has been a bit of a bugaboo to the dairy industry because you see the proliferation of products like soya milk and almond milk calling themselves milk.
“If you look at our standard of identity there is a reference to a lactating animal. An almond doesn’t lactate.
“So, the question becomes have we been enforcing our own standard of identity? The answer is probably not, but the challenge for us as a regulatory agency is if I want to change our regulatory posture with respect to how we’re enforcing the existing standards of identity I can’t just do it unilaterally.
“I’ve got to go through a period of notice and comment to provide the public to give input. Because if we’ve been operating from a posture of enforcement discretion for an extended period of time and I want to change that policy, I’ve effectively created a new de facto policy by operating with enforcement discretion,” he said.
Gottlieb said that there is a standard of identity for what can be labelled as milk and he intends to enforce it.
US milk producer reaction
The US National Milk Producers Federation has welcomed Gottlieb’s comments. Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of the federation, has said after years of inaction in response to complaints about the labelling violations, the announcement is very encouraging.
“The marketing of non-dairy imitators must comply with federal standards of identity, and consumers should not be misled that these products have the same nutrition as real milk, yogurt, cheese and other actual dairy products.”
The federation wrote to Gottlieb last year to complain that the agency has not been enforcing labelling standards, pointing out that FDA’s lack of action “has led to rampant consumer fraud related to the inferior nutrient content of these non-dairy products compared to their true dairy counterparts,” Mulhern said, adding that in addition to fake milks, there also are a proliferation of products calling themselves yogurt, cheese, ice cream and butter.
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