PETA and the dairy industry have found something to agree on.
Both believe that the word “milk” should not be used to describe plant-based alternative drinks such as soy, almond, or coconut milk, a question the Food and Drug Administration will begin considering next week.
“Healthy soy, almond, coconut, hemp, oat and hazelnut beverages deserve to be distinguished from the cow, goat and camel milk that are linked to prostate cancer, obesity, acne, mucoidal infections and hideous cruelty to animals,” said Ingrid Newkirk, PETA’s president. “To us, ‘milk’ is a four-letter word when used to mean the udder secretions of mothers whose babies are stolen from them by the greedy dairy industry.”
The dairy industry had been facing growing competition from some of these beverage alternatives, and has been pleading with the FDA to enforce its definitions of “milk,” “cheese,” and “yogurt” as coming from a “lacteal secretion” of an animal. Allowing other products to use same terms is misleading, they say.
“Our dairy farmers and processors work hard to produce incredible food. Milk and dairy products — real dairy products — offer almost unbeatable nutritional value,” Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative and the Dairy Business Association said in a joint statement. “Mislabeling non-dairy foods confuses customers who often make judgments about a food based on its name. Words do matter. That is why we have labeling requirements to begin with.”
The FDA’s definitions on food and drink are known as “standards of identity” and are typically used as a way to help customers know what they’re buying and about to ingest. Foods have to meet a certain definition before they can be marketed a certain way, and FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said that the agency would be enforcing its definition on “milk.”
“An almond doesn’t lactate,” Gottlieb said.
Before enforcement, a process will kick off inviting public comments, and a hearing is expected next week. The move toward setting a more specific definition on “milk,” Gottlieb said, is likely to result in lawsuits.
“There are going to be people who make a counter-argument that almond milk should be able to call itself ‘milk,’ but we do have a standard of identity and I do intend to enforce that,” he said.
