Dairy farmers lament that the supermarket dairy case is packed with soy milk and almond milk as well as milk from cows. FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb says the agency will update its definition of milk over the next year. “An almond doesn’t lactate, I will confess,” said Gottlieb at a Politico showcase.
The FDA probably will spend a year in gathering public comment and refining its definition of milk. The agency’s standards for milk now refer to products from lactating animals, said Politico. A definition favoring dairy producers “would be a major boon for dairy groups, which have been struggling amid dropping prices and global oversupply.”
Gottlieb said “we do have a standard of identity and I intend to enforce that,” according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The FDA has scheduled a public hearing on July 26 on topics that include the definition of milk. While the National Milk Producers Federation said mis-use of the name milk “has led to rampant consumer fraud,” the Good Food Institute, which lobbies for plant-based foods, said, No one is bying almond milk or soy milk, thinking that it came from a cow.”
The Journal Sentinel quoted Gottlieb as saying, “Invariably, we will probably get sued, as well, because the dictionary says milk can come from a lactating animal or a nut.”