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FDA to eliminate 18 “obsolete” dairy standards of identity

The Food and Drug Administration wants to eliminate what they call 58 obsolete and unnecessary food standards of identity, including 18 dairy products.

Clay Detlefsen with the National Milk Producers Federation tells Brownfield the FDA wants to get rid of three categories within the standards of identity rules: Products no longer on the market, foods covered by different regulations, and combination foods.  Detlefsen says several of the foods FDA has targeted are still on the market. “If you take them off the Standards of Identity list, then those foods can be made any way anyone wants and they will be able to be called that food, and that’s going to wind up with consumers getting things that they had no ideat that they’re getting.”

Detlefsen says he will be checking to see if the FDA’s list of dairy foods includes items still available in stores. “If they are in fact in the marketplace, which I suspect a number of them will be, we will be advocating at National Milk for those to retain their standards of identity so the consumers get what they want.”

Detlefsen says he remains engaged with the FDA, asking them to enforce existing rules about the use of dairy terms by producers of plant-based alternatives.