The Food and Drug Administration will consider how it will enforce the definition of “milk” on beverage companies that use that name on products not coming from a cow or another animal but from plants such as almonds or rice, commissioner Scott Gottlieb said Tuesday.
The move, Gottlieb acknowledged, is likely to result in lawsuits against the FDA. The process, which he said would begin “very soon,” would take roughly a year as the FDA collects public comments.
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The dairy industry has been facing competition from alternatives including rice, soy, coconut, and almond milk, and has been pressing Congress and federal regulators to stop the companies that sell these alternatives from defining their products as “milk,” “yogurt” or “cheese.”
Gottlieb pointed out that regulations from the FDA define milk as a “lacteal secretion” from an animal, typically a cow. These types of government definitions for foods are known as “standards of identity” and they’re typically used as a way to help customers know what they are eating and drinking.
“An almond doesn’t lactate,” Gottlieb said, speaking at the Politico Pro Summit in Washington, D.C. “The question is, ‘Have we been enforcing our own standard of identity?’ The answer is: probably not.”
The move would be likely to result in a backlash, he said, because the FDA’s definition contains the word “lactating animal” but dictionaries also include “nuts” in their definition.
“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.
The dairy industry has argued that naming alternative products in the same way as their products makes customers think that what they are eating or drinking has the same nutritional value as milk.
Members of Congress also have proposed legislation that would not allow alternative products to use the terms “milk,” “cheese” or “yogurt” unless they meet the FDA’s definition.
