America’s dairy farmers aren’t happy with plant-based alternatives being labeled as “milk”, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a ruling that will allow manufacturers of oat, soy and nut-based products to continue calling their products milk.

While the dairy industry isn’t happy with the ruling, there was a win for dairy milk producers.  The FDA says that the plant-based products should do a better job of labeling the nutritional information on their products.  Dairy producers say that is good, because plant based alternatives do not have the same nutritional components as cow or goat milk.

In the decision made last week, the FDA said, “Although many plant-based milk alternatives are labeled with names that bear the term “milk” (e.g., “soy milk”), they do not purport to be nor are they represented as milk,” the FDA concluded. “The comments and information we reviewed indicate that consumers understand plant-based milk alternatives to be different products than milk. … consumers, generally, do not mistake plant-based milk alternatives for milk.”

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