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FDA lacks timeline for plant-based milk labeling guidance

The Deputy Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration says there are two main sticking points holding up its release of plant-based milk labeling draft guidance.

During a recent U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing, Jim Jones told lawmakers he plans to get them a timeline from his agency on the guidance, but a date has not been set to make it final.

“When can a plant-based milk alternative use the term milk in its labeling and what should such a product say about nutritional equivalents— we’re working through both of those issues,” he says.

Jones says the agency’s research finds consumers understand that plant-based alternatives are not milk. But he says, “Our research also shows that consumers are not aware that often times plant-based alternatives to milk are not nutritionally equivalent to milk.”

He says the draft is currently encouraging manufacturers of plant-based alternatives to provide nutritional information about the differences.

Pennsylvania Republican John Joyce says the nutritional value of dairy foods is superior to fake products and imitators should be removed from the dairy case.

“Simply urging companies to spell out the nutritional deficiency will not solve the problem of consumer confusion, which stems from assumptions based on the use of the term milk,” he says. “I am concluding with you today milk comes from a lactating mammal.”

Joyce is a co-sponsored of the Dairy PRIDE Act which calls for FDA to enforce its standards of identity for milk.

A bipartisan letter in the U.S. Senate this past week also called for the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Servies and Agriculture to use science-based recommendations in its updated Dietary Guidance.