{"id":43569,"date":"2022-09-12T15:44:45","date_gmt":"2022-09-12T15:44:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/?p=43569"},"modified":"2022-09-12T15:44:45","modified_gmt":"2022-09-12T15:44:45","slug":"the-fda-vs-almond-milk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/the-fda-vs-almond-milk\/","title":{"rendered":"The FDA vs. Almond Milk"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The FDA Is Coming for Your Almond Milk<\/h1>\n

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Really? This is what the government cares about right now?<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Is it milk?\u00a0Aditya Ali\/EyeEm\/Getty<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Fight disinformation:\u00a0Sign up<\/a>\u00a0for the free\u00a0Mother Jones Daily\u00a0newsletter and follow the news that matters.<\/div>\n

When you drop a box of almond milk into your shopping cart, or order an oat-milk latte, are you being bamboozled? That\u2019s the contention of Big Dairy, which has been pressing its friends in\u00a0Congress<\/a>\u00a0and the US Food and Drug Administration to reserve the name \u201cmilk\u201d for fluids extracted from the mammary glands of animals. The FDA, which regulates food labeling, appears poised to grant the industry its wish.<\/p>\n

The argument, as the National Federation of Milk Producers put it a 2019\u00a0comment\u00a0<\/a>to the FDA, is that the existence of almond, etc., \u201cmilk\u201d (as opposed to, say, \u201calmond beverage\u201d) means that we\u2019re \u201cbeing misled about the nutritional content of plant-based imitators relative to real dairy products,\u201d thereby \u201ccausing harm to our nation\u2019s children and, potentially, other consumers.\u201d As\u00a0the federation argues, a\u00a0cup<\/a>\u00a0of dairy milk, for example, contains 8 grams of protein, and the word \u201cmilk\u201d makes consumers think they should get the same from an equal amount of almond \u201cmilk,\u201d which typically\u00a0delivers<\/a>\u00a0just 1 gram of protein. What a ripoff, the logic goes, one that could supposedly contribute to a nutritional crisis.<\/p>\n

The DAIRY PRIDE Act would force the FDA to crack down on plant-based alternatives.<\/p>\n

Back in March, the FDA\u00a0submitted<\/a>\u00a0a draft policy regarding the \u201clabeling of plant-based milk alternatives\u201d to the Office of Management and Budget, which must approve rule changes. While the document has not been made public, the FDA would likely not have filed it without intending to change the status quo. In\u00a0testimony<\/a>\u00a0before the US Senate on April 28, commissioner Robert Califf indicated he agreed with the dairy industry\u2019s line. Consumers aren\u2019t \u201cvery equipped to deal with what\u2019s the nutritional value of non-dairy milk alternatives,\u201d he said.\u00a0Asked about changing the FDA\u2019s policy on affixing the milk label to non-dairy drinks, he said: \u201cWe\u2019re moving along quickly and it\u2019s a priority to get this done, so I can assure you it will get done.\u201d<\/p>\n

These answers must have delighted several of the assembled dairy-state senators, including Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D.-Wisc). and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), co-sponsors of the 2021 \u201cDefending Against Imitations and Replacements of Yogurt, milk, and cheese to Promote Regular Intake of Dairy Everyday\u00a0Act<\/a>,\u201d which would force the FDA to crack down on plant-based alternative companies that were labeling their products \u201cmilk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others on the Hill are less impressed. In a statement to\u00a0Mother Jones,<\/em>\u00a0Sen. Cory Booker (D.-N.J.) expressed surprise that the FDA would place such a priority on tweaking names of popular beverages at a time when the agency has come under scathing criticism for neglecting the food part of its mandate. Booker pointed to a blockbuster April 8\u00a0investigation<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0Politico<\/em>\u00a0reporter Helena Bottemiller Evich which found that \u201cregulating food is simply not a high priority at the agency, where drugs and other medical products dominate, both in budget and bandwidth\u2014a dynamic that\u2019s only been exacerbated during the pandemic.\u201d She added: \u201cOver the years, the food side of FDA has been so ignored and grown so dysfunctional that even former FDA commissioners readily acknowledged problems in interviews.\u201d<\/p>\n

An official high up in the agency essentially agreed with her critique, Bottemiller Evich reports. The agency has \u201ctoo many programs and not enough resources,\u201d Janet Woodcock, FDA\u2019s principal deputy commissioner, told her, \u201cand the mismatch is profound.\u201d As for the food division, it\u2019s \u201creally important, but it\u2019s very under-resourced.\u201d<\/p>\n

And yet the FDA has apparently found time to intervene on behalf of the dairy industry to deliver one of its main lobbying goals. \u201cFor too long the FDA has failed to take action to address the nutrition crisis we are facing in our country,\u201d Booker said, referring to\u00a0rising levels<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0diet-related illnesses<\/a>\u00a0like Type 2 diabetes, attributed to consumption of lightly regulated\u00a0ultra-processed foods<\/a>. \u201cRather than using their regulatory authority to protect consumers, FDA instead now appears poised\u2014in a blatant example of regulatory capture after years of dairy industry pressure\u2014to take action solely for the purpose of protecting market share for conventional milk. I am deeply concerned by the FDA\u2019s misguided priorities, and hope that the Office of Management and Budget will return the proposed guidance to the FDA for reconsideration.\u201d The budget office declined to comment on its timeline for deciding on the FDA\u2019s proposal.<\/p>\n

In a\u00a0letter<\/a>\u00a0to the OMB released May 19, Booke joined forces with Sen. Mike Lee (R.-Utah),and Reps. Julia Brownley (D.-Calif.) and Nancy Mace (R.-S.C.) to make a similar plea that OMB squash any plan to crack down on the labeling of plant-based milks. They pointed to a 2017 federal court\u00a0decision<\/a>\u00a0rejecting the dairy industry\u2019s claim that consumers can\u2019t assess the nutritional differences between dairy and non-dairy products.<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than using their regulatory authority to protect consumers, FDA instead now appears poised\u2026to take action solely for the purpose of protecting market share for conventional milk.\u201d<\/p>\n

For me, Big Dairy\u2019s fixation on hoarding the \u201cmilk\u201d name is as puzzling as Califf\u2019s decision to make the topic a priority right now. Cow milk consumption has been declining for decades, since long before the\u00a0almond milk surge<\/a>\u00a0of the early 2010s and the more recent\u00a0oat milk boom<\/a>.\u00a0In 1945, Americans on average quaffed\u00a045 gallons<\/a>\u00a0of dairy milk annually per capita, which translates to an impressive 2.3 cups daily. That turned out to be the peak preceding a long and steady downward slope. Now, 77 years later, we consume just\u00a00.57 cups<\/a>\u00a0daily, and falling, nearly half of it in cereal or mixed into other beverages like coffee.<\/p>\n

After decades as a fringe food found mainly in health food stores, dairy-free alternatives began to soar in popularity during the 21st\u00a0century, and now account for 15 percent of \u201call dollar sales of retail milk,\u201d\u00a0according<\/a>\u00a0to the vegan think-tank The Good Food Institute. Even so, Big Dairy can\u2019t blame the rise of alternatives for even the recent decline of milk. A 2020\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0by USDA researchers found that the \u201cincrease in sales over 2013 to 2017 of plant-based options is one-fifth the size of the decrease in Americans\u2019 purchases of cow\u2019s milk.\u201d It concluded that \u201csales of plant-based milk alternatives are contributing to\u2014but not a primary driver of\u2014declining sales of cow\u2019s milk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nor is there evidence that America\u2019s turn away from milk as a beverage has exacted negative nutritional consequences. Dietary intake of calcium, the product\u2019s signature nutrient, steadily increased for all age groups between 1994 and 2010, a USDA\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0found, even as per capita milk consumption dwindled. Similarly, cow milk offers multiple times the protein of most of its plant-based rivals; but as we\u2019ve turned away from it, signs of a\u00a0protein deficiency<\/a>\u00a0in our diets have not developed.<\/p>\n

In short, the battle over what to call the stuff we rely on to enhance coffee and cereal looks a lot like a tempest in a cappuccino cup. The FDA has more burning issues to tend to. Like, say, the current baby formula crisis. And so does the dairy industry\u2014including the problem of\u00a0chronic overproduction<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The FDA Is Coming for Your Almond Milk Really? This is what the government cares about right now? Is it milk?\u00a0Aditya Ali\/EyeEm\/Getty Fight disinformation:\u00a0Sign up\u00a0for the free\u00a0Mother Jones Daily\u00a0newsletter and follow the news that matters. When you drop a box of almond milk into your shopping cart, or order an oat-milk latte, are you being Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[661,1],"tags":[620],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43569"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43569"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43572,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43569\/revisions\/43572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}