Dairy Industry Lobbies to Cut Milk from Soy Milk

(FoodNavigator-USA.com – Guy Montague-Jones)

A dairy industry group is lobbying the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to banish the term ‘soy milk’ and stamp out any other use of dairy-specific terms to describe non-dairy products. The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) has sent a petition to the FDA urging the regulator to crack down on what it calls “the misappropriation of dairy terminology on imitation milk products.”

Since the NMPF first complained to the FDA about the practice a decade ago, the trade body argues that it is now more common than ever. In addition to the proliferation of terms like ‘soy milk’ and ‘soymilk’, the petition to the FDA contends that other dairy product names like cheese, yogurt and ice cream are being used by makers of non-dairy products.

The NMPF describes this as “false and misleading” labeling. Jerry Kozak, NMPF president and CEO, accuses the FDA of letting the issue slide so that the meaning of ‘milk’ has now been “watered down to the point where many products that use the term have never seen the inside of a barn.” Read more here.