Imitation Dairy Products

Imitation dairy products, made from everything from soybeans to rice to hemp, don’t got milk...but you’d be hard-pressed to know that from many of the labels these products use. While federal law says that milk, yogurt, ice cream, sour cream, and cheese must be made from real dairy, there’s a growing list of items in grocery stores that use these terms even though they’re made from plants and nuts.

Show your support for real dairy foods by asking the Food and Drug Administration to halt the misuse of dairy labels on faux dairy foods.


What we are NOT saying...

  • We are NOT saying that these products shouldn't be sold. Consumers should have options. Consumers select foods for a variety of reasons (ethics, personal preference, religious, etc.).


What we ARE saying...

  • Putting a white fluid into the same package as milk, with pictures showing uses for it just like milk, with phrases on the carton like "the perfect alternative for milk", putting it in the dairy case right beside milk, and including the word "milk" in the name of the product... all confuse the consumer into thinking these imitation products are nutritionally the same as real milk, when in fact they aren't the same.
  • Many people think these imitation dairy products must be the same as their true dairy counterparts. They think they must have the same nutrients, because they are a type of "milk".
  • Product names should be informative, not deceptive. When consumers opt for a non-dairy alternative and do so thinking it has the same nutrient value as real milk, we need to take a look at what role the product name plays in that.
  • These products can be sold, but they should be renamed so that consumers better understand the differences between these imitations and real dairy products. The term "milk" (or "cheese", "yogurt", "ice cream") should be used for foods that come from cows.


Frequently Asked Questions

Who decides what to name a food? What are Standards of Identity? What about using a Dictionary to decide how foods should be named? Find the answers to these and other frequently asked questions about imitation dairy products.

 

NMPF Again Reminds Food and Drug Administration That Food Packages Need To Be Properly Labeled With Appropriate Product Names: July 28, 2010

As part of its continuing effort to prompt the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to crack down on improperly labeled imitation dairy products, NMPF submitted comments asking the FDA to scrutinize whether the packaging of such foods is giving consumers accurate information. The FDA was accepting public comments on what types of point-of-purchase nutrition information, including the product labels on the packages, as well as store shelf tags, should be conveyed to shoppers. In its comments to FDA, NMPF stressed that the actual name of the food on the package – one of the most basic pieces of information that appears on every packaged food – does impact consumers’ food purchasing decisions, and conveys crucial nutritional information about the product.

In its letter, NMPF reported that the average consumer spends less than 15 seconds looking at food packages before making a purchasing decision. Instead of making detailed comparisons of Nutrition Facts panels, many consumers rely on images, visual cues, and text on the front of the package, including the name of the food, to evaluate the nutrient content of the product. NMPF emphasized this type of consumer behavior is important to consider, especially when the product is a non-dairy alternative inappropriately using dairy terminology in its name, like “soy milk” or “rice yogurt.”

 

Take Action!

Write to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg and encourage her to put a stop to the blatant and continued misuse of traditional dairy terms by manufacturers of plant-based substitutes (i.e., analogs made from soy, nuts, seeds, etc.). FDA needs to enforce the standards of identity for “Milk”, “Yogurt”, “Sour Cream”, “Ice Cream”, and many varieties of “Cheese” which are currently being ignored and abused by marketers of these mislabeled products.

 

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