On July 17 at the Politico Pro Summit, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the agency plans to issue a document outlining changes to its policies that govern the marketing of milk.
“You see the proliferation of products like soy milk and almond milk calling themselves milk, and if you look at our standards of identity, there is a reference somewhere to a lactating animal,” Gottlieb said. “And an almond doesn’t lactate, I will confess.”
The debate between dairy producers and plant-based milk substitute producers over the use of the word “milk” isn’t new. In January 2017, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) introduced a bill, S. 130, that would stop nondairy drink manufacturers from using “milk” to describe their products. However, the bill has languished since then.
A few weeks after the introduction of the bill, Capstone Law APC filed two class-action suits in Los Angeles County against plant-based beverage providers, one against WhiteWave Foods Co., which produces Silk, and another against Blue Diamond Growers Inc., which produces Almond Breeze. The Blue Diamond suit was dismissed on the grounds that “the claim of customer confusion is patently implausible,” and the other lawsuit was dismissed on the grounds that the FDA would be a better venue for the discussion.