FDA allows soy and almond drinks to be labeled 'milk' but specify nutritional differences; dairy-farm count is down

FDA example of how plant-based
milk alternatives should be labeled

The Food and Drug Administration issued labeling guidance allowing drinks that are not cow's milk to keep "milk" in their names, "but [FDA said] they should display a special nutrition statement showing how their products differ from milk," reports Philip Gruber of Lancaster Farming, which is based in Pennsylvania and serves the Northeast, a dairy hub.

"The agency’s guidance on milk alternatives is a major loss and a minor win for the dairy industry, which for decades has sought to restrict use of the term 'milk' to stifle competition from the $2 billion plant-based beverage industry," Gruber writes. "The FDA defines milk as coming from a cow, so plant-based beverages cannot be marketed as milk," but the manufacturers say they're not calling it milk. "FDA does not have a regulatory definition of plant-based milk alternatives . . . So the alternative drinks must be labeled with their common names, and terms like soy milk appear to be established by common usage, the agency said."

Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of the National Milk Producers Federation, told Lancaster Farming that FDA’s guidance doesn’t go far enough, but at least acknowledges consumer confusion. He told Gruber, "We reject the agency’s circular logic that FDA’s past labeling enforcement inaction now justifies labeling such beverages ‘milk’ by designating a common and usual name."

While people realize that almond milk is not cow's milk, "Research suggests shoppers don’t understand the nutritional differences between milk and plant-based alternatives," Gruber writes. "Milk is an important source of calcium, protein, vitamin A, vitamin D, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, riboflavin and vitamin B12 — nutrients that plant-based milks may not provide in comparable amounts." Yet the FDA's guidance notes, "Consumers often use the products as milk substitutes and prefer to call them milks. Dubbing them 'beverages' or 'drinks' may suggest inferior quality." The guidance does not define the differences between 'quality' and 'nutritional value.'

The guidance took the FDA's "2018 request for comment that received more than 13,000 responses," into account, Gruber reports. As well as results from "focus groups and consulted other research, finding that shoppers generally realize that plant-based alternatives don’t contain milk." The FDA will accept comments on the regulation through April 24. To learn more about commenting, go here.

Meanwhile, the number of U.S. dairy farms continues to shrink. "The U.S. lost 6% of its dairy farms last year, roughly the same share as last year," Gruber reports in another story. "The U.S. lost 1,900 dairies last year, slightly more than the 1,800 dairies the previous year but smaller than the 2,500 farms that exited in 2020."

UPDATE, March 3: Lancaster Farming's Tom Venesky reports that the FDA has "frustrated groups on both sides of the issue. . . . The plant-based camp lauds the decision but is critical of FDA’s nonbinding recommendation that packages specify which nutrients a beverage has in lower quantities than cow's milk."