Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin from Wisconsin heavily criticized FDA over draft federal rules about milk labeling
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) criticized the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday for draft federal rules that would let plant-based milk alternatives keep the “milk” label. She said this would hurt American dairy farmers.
“I stood up for Wisconsin dairy farmers by calling out @US FDA’s guidance that allows plant-based products to be labeled as “milk,” Baldwin wrote on Twitter, sharing a screenshot of the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of the word as it appears in a Google search.
“This wrong thing to do hurts our farmers, and we need to keep the quality of dairy products high. “If you’re wondering, milk still means the same thing,” Baldwin said. The definition that was captured on a screenshot says that the product comes from female mammals.
The FDA just put out a draft of how to label plant-based milk alternatives. It said that people in focus groups “were not confused” about whether plant-based drinks labeled “milk” actually contained dairy, and that people preferred to call the alternatives “milk” instead of “beverage” or “drink.”
The guidance also says that between 2010 and 2016, the number of U.S. households that bought or drank plant-based milk alternatives like oat, soy, coconut, and other kinds jumped from one-fifth to one-third, and retail sales of these products reached $2.4 billion.
Baldwin has been one of the lawmakers who have been pushing for a long time for the FDA to crack down on plant-based products that use labels from the dairy industry, pointing out how bad this is for American dairy farmers.
In a statement released Wednesday, the Wisconsin senator and Sen. Jim Risch (R-Ind.) accused the FDA of “failing to enforce its own definitions for dairy terminology and stop imitation products from misleading consumers.” They also reintroduced their “DAIRY PRIDE Act,” or “Defending Against Imitations and Replacements of Yogurt, Milk, and Cheese to Promote Regular Intake of Dairy Everyday,” which would do something about the labeling.
