Dairy Industry Supports Argues Lab Grown Dairy Products Shouldn't be Labeled as Milk and Cheese

Friday, September 15th, 2023 -- 9:01 AM

(Hope Kirwan, Wisconsin Public Radio) Dairy industry supporters have been arguing for years that plant-based products should not be allowed to use terms like "milk" or "cheese" on their labels.

Now, according to Hope Kirwan with Wisconsin Public Radio, that debate is growing to include products that are meant to mimic milk, but are made in a lab instead of by a cow. Lab-grown or cell-based dairy products use fermentation to create proteins that look like whey protein.

These proteins are then turned into powders and can be used to make alternatives for milk, cream cheese and other products. Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and seven other senators sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday, calling for the agency to prevent these products from using dairy names.

It's a similar argument that Baldwin and other lawmakers have made about plant-based alternatives. Criticizing the FDA for what they describe as "decades of inaction" on dairy labeling, Baldwin and the other senators said in the new letter that many cell-based products are nutritionally inferior to regular dairy products in similar ways to plant-based products.

The lawmakers said consumer confusion around the nutritional content of dairy alternatives has led to public health concerns. Baldwin said in a statement to Wisconsin Public Radio the FDA has failed for years to protect consumers and dairy farmers, as alternative products "have profited off of dairy's good name".

"I'm calling on the Biden administration to step up and enforce the rules about dairy labeling, especially as we see new synthetic imitators coming to market," she said. Federal regulators acknowledged the nutritional differences of dairy and alternative products when the FDA released new draft guidance for labeling of soy milk, almond milk and similar products in February.

The agency found that consumers do not mistake plant-based alternatives for milk, allowing them to continue to use the word in their labels. But officials expressed concern that growing consumer preference for the products could lead to consumers not getting enough calcium, vitamin D and other important nutrients because of a lack of nutritional standards for the products.

The FDA recommended that alternatives using the term "milk" in their name also state on their primary label that the product contains lower amounts of certain nutrients than milk.

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