No Cows in Sight: Should Almond and Oat Drinks be Marketed as “Milk”?

By Yehudit Garmaise

For years, dairy producers have asked the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to disallow manufacturers of soy, oat, coconut, almond beverages from calling their products, “milk,” but last week the FDA said that consumers are not confused by the differences between the “milk” that comes from the liquid extracts of plant materials and the dairy milk that is taken from cows.

While the FDA, which aims to provide consumers with clear nutrition information, will allow the producers of the non-dairy drinks to continue to market themselves as, “milk,” the FDA recommends that the beverage makers clearly label the plant sources of their products, such as “soy milk” or “cashew milk,” the Associated Press reported.  

In the US, almond milk is the most popular plant-based drink, but oat milk, which is trendy to add to coffee drinks, has been seeing the fastest growth in popularity among parve milks.

Now, the FDA requires non-dairy milk manufacturers to voluntarily provide extra nutrition labels that clarify whenever their drinks have lower levels of nutrients, such as calcium, magnesium, and vitamin D, than dairy milk includes.

Plant-based milks, such as fortified soy milk, which includes higher nutritional levels than dairy milk, will continue to be allowed to feature labels that note their higher levels of vitamins and minerals than those of dairy milk.

The National Milk Producers Federation, a dairy industry trade group was pleased that the FDA was recommending clear nutritional information on plant-based milk drinks, but the federation rejected the FDA’s conclusion that plant-based drinks can be called “milk.”

In the past, lawmakers in dairy states have tried to get bills passed that would require the FDA to enforce a federal standard that defines “milk” as the product of “milking one or more healthy cows.”

Producers of cow’s milk and the lawmakers who represent them, however, need not feel threatened by the recent explosion of milks that are derived from hundreds of plant sources, such as cashews, coconuts, quinoa, and hemp, because the sales of cow’s milk continues to far surpasses the sales of nondairy milk in the US.

For instance, in the year that ended Jan. 28, sales of refrigerated cow’s milk had grown to $12.3 billion, compared with the $2.5 billion worth of nondairy milk that was sold, according to NielsenIQ.

Until April 23, the FDA will accept comments on its draft guidelines of the labelling of non-dairy milks.