PA Proposes Law To Define Milk As Coming From A Cow

HARRISBURG, PA — Continuing a long ongoing war waged by dairy producing states and the dairy industry, Pennsylvania lawmakers want to ban plant based milks and other non-dairy alternatives from using the term "milk" in their labeling, claiming it's misleading.

These are efforts that have been largely laughed away by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other regulating bodies, and the FDA's new proposed guidelines published in February specifically state that plant-based milks can continue to label themselves as milk.

Research shows "consumers understand that plant-based milk alternatives are distinct products and choose to purchase plant-based milk alternatives because they are not milk," the FDA's draft guidelines read.

Despite this, states like Virginia and now Pennsylvania are pushing bills that claim the FDA's definition of milk, written in 1973, states that the definition of milk is that it comes from a cow.

"There is a clear disadvantage when non-dairy milk substitutes are allowed in the dairy case and compete with actual milk by claiming to be a healthier alternative," State Sen. Elder A. Vogel, Jr. (R-Beaver/Butler/Lawrence) wrote in a co-sponsorship memorandum. "While I understand the need for these milk substitutes, they are simply not milk and should not be labeled as such."

Vogel added that the new guidelines from the FDA constitute an "attack on the dairy industry."

The debate is not new. For decades, dairy interests have sought to force dairy alternatives to change their labeling, sensing the growing popularity of plant based milks and threats to dairy's hegemony. Plant alternative defenders say that non-dairy foods are their own categories.

"Two completely distinct foods (like peanut butter and almond butter, canola oil and soybean oil, or cow’s milk and soy milk) are not modifications of each other," said attorney Nigel Barrella, with the nonprofit Good Food Institute.

And neither are plant based milks new, as their advocates are quick to point out. Almond milk was called almond milk as early as the 13th century, and was popular across Asia, North Africa, and Europe throughout the Middle Ages. To say 800 years later that the phrase can no longer be used would be more misleading, advocates argue.

Barella says that legislation that seeks to claim that milk only comes from a cow is tantamount to government "picking winners and losers in the marketplace and declaring animal-based dairy to be the winner."

He adds that proposed legislation like Vogel's also exempts other animal-based products that don't have dairy milk's exact ingredients, like goat’s and sheep’s milk, from their proposed guidelines entirely.

The FDA's full proposed draft guidelines are online here.