Lawmakers, NMPF Press FDA to Finally Enforce Dairy Standards of Identity
August 4, 2026
NMPF’s decades-long fight for labeling integrity got a fresh boost this month as a bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers sent a letter to FDA Acting Commissioner Kyle Dimantas urging the agency to enforce its standards of identity for dairy products and stop plant-based imitators from co-opting terms like “milk,” “cheese,” “yogurt” and “butter.”
The letter was signed by the original sponsors of the DAIRY PRIDE Act — Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-WI, Sen. Jim Risch, R-ID, Rep. John Joyce, R-PA, and Rep. Josh Riley, D-NY, — and makes a point NMPF has raised for years: FDA’s own guidance admits that consumers don’t understand the nutritional differences between real dairy and plant-based alternatives. Despite that admission, the agency has continued to rely on a voluntary labeling approach that simply hasn’t worked.
NMPF reinforced that message directly to FDA this week, formally supporting the congressional letter and calling on the agency to rescind its current plant-based labeling guidance in favor of real enforcement of existing standards of identity.
Our position remains the same as it’s always been: Labeling integrity is basic consumer protection, and it’s a matter of fairness to farmers and cooperatives who follow the rules while imitation products borrow dairy’s good name without meeting any of its standards.
NMPF will keep members updated as FDA responds, and we encourage cooperatives to continue amplifying this message with their congressional delegations.
