Dairy Champions Prod FDA to Enforce Dairy Terms at Legislative Hearing
October 2, 2024
NMPF helped several dairy champions in both parties shine a spotlight on the Food and Drug Administration’s decades-long refusal to enforce dairy product standards of identity Sept. 10 when Jim Jones, the agency’s Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods, appeared at a congressional hearing on FDA’s human foods program.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee hearing examined numerous bipartisan bills, including the NMPF-backed DAIRY PRIDE Act (H.R. 1462) to compel FDA to enforce dairy standards of identity in the interest of public health and truth in labeling. The bill is sponsored by Representatives John Joyce, R-PA, Ann Kuster, D-NH, Mike Simpson, R-ID, Joe Courtney, D-CT, Derrick Van Orden, R-WI, and Angie Craig, D-MN. Senators Tammy Baldwin, D-WI, Jim Risch, R-ID, Peter Welch, D-VT, and Susan Collins, R-ME, are leading the bill in the Senate.
In an exchange with Jones, Rep. Joyce, the bill’s lead House sponsor, said the agency’s 2023 draft guidance regarding the labeling of plant-based milk alternatives is woefully inadequate. That draft guidance suggested that plant-based product manufacturers disclose on their packaging the nutritional deficiencies of their products relative to real milk, but it made no attempt to discourage manufacturers from using the term ‘milk’ in the name of the product.
“The nutritional value of dairy products is superior to these imitators” and should not be sold in dairy cases, said Joyce. “Simply urging companies to spell out the nutritional deficiency will not solve the problem of consumer confusion, which stems from assumptions based on the use of the term ‘milk’. And ‘milk’, I am concluding with you today, comes from a lactating mammal, and the imitators – the fakes – are simply not milk.”
Backed by numerous public health organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, NMPF has long argued that consumers do not fully understand the nutritional differences between real dairy and its plant-based imitators. Rep. Kuster put emphasis on this point, stating that “so many public health organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, have urged FDA to remove the term ‘milk’ from plant-based beverages.”
Finally, Rep. Kat Cammack, R-FL, a DAIRY PRIDE cosponsor, pressed Jones for a timeline on when FDA would make last year’s draft guidance final. FDA said after the hearing its expectation was that the guidance should be published by the end of 2025.
