Imitation Dairy
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is authorized by Congress to craft standards of identity to prevent food fraud and ensure fair trade practices by establishing mandatory ingredient lists, compositional requirements and production methods for standardized foods, which protects consumers and public health. These standards also prevent deception and provide information that protects consumers from being misled about what a product is, including its nutrition profile.
Non-dairy substitutes have existed for generations; in recent years, non-dairy foods labeled to substitute for and resemble standardized dairy products increasingly have flouted established rules by labeling and marketing themselves in a way that conveys they are nutritionally equivalent, or even superior, substitutes – despite being almost uniformly nutritionally inferior to their dairy counterparts. FDA has done little to remedy this situation.
FDA’s failure to enforce standards of identity and policies against unlawfully marketed non-dairy substitutes has led to a plethora of products posing as something they are not. That in turn has led to consumer confusion regarding the nutritional differences between these mislabeled products and actual dairy. NMPF continues to press FDA to enforce its own rules and ensure transparent labeling that protects consumers.
Our Position
Dairy farmers take great pride in their high-quality, nutritious dairy products and have spent decades building consumer confidence in them. Imitations should not be allowed to unfairly capitalize on these associations, especially in ways that encourage inadequate nutrition and consumer confusion.
NMPF supports actions that stop the continued proliferation and marketing of mislabeled non-dairy substitutes for standardized dairy foods misrepresented as “milk,” “cheese,” “butter,” “yogurt,” “ice cream,” or other dairy foods.
NMPF also supports the bipartisan DAIRY PRIDE Act, which directs FDA to follow its own rules and establish an agency approach for the enforcement of existing dairy standards of identity, as a prod to FDA to do its job.
Key Points
- Consumers know that dairy products provide key nutrients necessary for healthy child development and for adult health. A glass of milk offers 13 essential nutrients, and, according to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 88 percent of Americans have insufficient dairy in their diets.
- As surveys have repeatedly shown, consumers are being misled about the nutritional content of plant-based imitators relative to real dairy products, creating marketplace confusion and inappropriately blurring well-defined standards of identity.
- Organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the School Nutrition Association have voiced their concern about the lack of labeling integrity among marketers of non-dairy substitutes after observing child malnourishment caused by reliance on plant-based imitators by parents who mistakenly thought that they were getting dairy’s unique nutrient package. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans also cautions against plant-based substitution, noting that most plant-based beverages lack nutritional equivalence.
- Clear, accurate labeling is a fundamental matter of truth and transparency for consumers, well within First Amendment practices governing commercial speech. FDA must reassert well-established standards of identity to guide all actors in the marketplace.
