Dairymen are lobbying Congress to restrict use of the word “milk” to products derived from lactating animals like cows. Makers of increasingly popular soy, almond and coconut-based milk substitutes have pushed back, asking the US Food and Drug Administration to back a broader use of the term.
At stake is a $US16 billion ($21bn) milk market where cows no longer stand alone. Sales of plant-based milk substitutes have soared 76 per cent over the past five years while conventional milk sales dropped 18 per cent, according to market research firm IRI.
While the new substitutes still make up just 9 per cent of the refrigerated milk market, the rapid growth troubles dairy farmers because their industry is shrinking overall: US milk consumption is down nearly 40 per cent per capita since 1975, the US Agriculture Department says.
“These products are masquerading as milk,” said Jim Mulhern, chief executive of the National Milk Producers Federation. The Arlington, Virginia-based trade group, which helped draft the bills before Congress, calls its plant-based competitors “cow-nterfeits” that lack the nutritional value of milk. The dairy group promotes milk’s nine essential nutrients, including calcium, protein, potassium and vitamin D.
The Washington-based Good Food Institute, which lobbies on behalf of plant-based dairy and meat products, on Thursday filed a petition asking the FDA to affirm soybean and nut processors’ right to call their products milk.
“This (legislation) would be the government censoring plant-based milk and cheese companies in violation of the First Amendment,” said Bruce Friedrich, the institute’s executive director. “It would treat consumers like infants, suggesting that Americans can’t figure out what soy milk is.”
Mr Friedrich says consumers like plant-derived milks because they offer different nutritional benefits than conventional milk such as higher calcium content and lower fat.
An FDA spokeswoman said the agency would respond to the petition after reviewing it. She declined to comment on the proposed legislation.
A similar dispute prompted the European Union to rule in 2007 that plant-based versions of milk had to call themselves “drink” or “beverage” They are labelled similarly in Canada.
WhiteWave Foods, one of the biggest US marketers of soy, almond, cashew and coconut milks, said it believes consumers understand the difference between its products and conventional milk. Michael Lynch, head of marketing for plant-based dairy products maker Daiya Foods, said legislation wouldn’t reverse the slowing sales that dairy farmers are fighting.
Dairy farmers say the fight is more fundamental than that.
“I’m a believer that milk is milk, and milk needs to come from animals,” said Mitch Breunig, who operates a farm in Wisconsin.
Source: TheAustralian
Link: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/wall-street-journal/dairy-industry-battles-plantbased-milks/news-story/5edff2bd6ef9245a6de350bf33f862fc
