Almond and soy milk drinkers, this one is for you. The Food and Drug Administration is beginning to plan ways to change the federal terminology of what defines milk. Their goal is to have milk adhere to the standards of “milking of one or more healthy cows.” This means that any plant or nut based drinks labeled as milk will have to find another way to identify.
With the news of this hitting the internet, the Good Food Institute says the term milk should be permitted with modifiers for nondairy drinks.
“For the same reason that you can have gluten-free bread and rice noodles, almond milk, and soy milk are the clearest and best terms for describing those products,” said Bruce Friedrich, co-found of the Good Food Institute.
Many are feeling that this is going to cause confusion, especially for suppliers who have created their products based solely around calling it milk.
The FDA can’t change standards without any warning, so this plan will begin to take place over the next year.