How'd You Get that Milk?
With your Southeast Regional Ag News, I am Haylie Shipp. This is the Ag Information Network.
How’d you get that milk? That’s a very 21st century question, but with lots of options filling the “dairy” fridge, guidance is on the way.
The Food and Drug Administration Wednesday announced draft recommendations on the naming of plant-based foods that are marketed and sold as alternatives to milk. The guidance recommends that an alternative milk product that includes the term milk and has a nutrient composition different than milk, include a voluntary nutrient statement that conveys how the product compares.
Jim Mulhern, President and CEO of the National Milk Producers Federation, says the announcement "is a step toward labeling integrity for consumers of dairy products." Though Mulhern says the guidance "falls short of ending the decades-old problem of misleading plant-based labeling using dairy terminology."
Senate Democrat Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Idaho Republican Jim Risch, in a joint statement, say, "This misguided rule will hurt America's dairy farmers and our rural communities." Baldwin and Risch announced their intention to reintroduce the DAIRY PRIDE Act, which would require the FDA to issue guidance for nationwide enforcement of mislabeled plant-based products.
