You overhear a lot of strange things in coffee shops, but an order for an “almond-based dairy-alternative cappuccino” is not one of them. Ditto a “soy-beverage macchiato” or an “oat-drink latte.” Vocalizing such a request elicited a confidence-hollowing glare from my barista when I recently attempted this stunt in a New York City café. To most people, plant-based milk is plant-based milk.
But though the American public has embraced this naming convention, the dairy industry has not. For more than a decade, companies have sought to convince the FDA that plant-based products shouldn’t be able to use the M-word. An early skirmish played out in 2008 over the name “soy milk,” which, the FDA acknowledged at the time, wasn’t exactly milk; a decade later, then-FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb pointed out that nut milk shouldn’t be called “milk” because “an almond doesn’t lactate.” To be safe, some fake-milk products have stuck to vaguer labels such as “drink,” “beverage,” and “dairy alternative.”
But a few weeks ago, the FDA signaled an end to the debate by proposing long-awaited naming recommendations: Plant-based milk, the agency said, could be called “milk” if its plant origin was clearly identified (for example, “pistachio milk”). In addition, labels could clearly state how the product differs nutritionally from regular milk. A package labeled “rice milk” would be acceptable, but it should note when the product has less calcium or vitamin D than milk.
Rather than prompt a détente, these recommendations are sucking milk into an existential crisis. Differentiating plant-based milk and milk requires defining what milk actually is, but doing so is at odds with the acknowledgment that plant-based milk is milk. It is impossible to compare plant-based and cow’s milk if there isn’t a standard nutrient content for cow’s milk, which comes in a range of formulations. This awkward moment is the culmination of a…
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