Eatables and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb knows that almonds don’t lactate. But he indigences to make sure you know, too.
The regulator Thursday said it was on a “fast chase to take a fresh look” at how dairy substitutes are being used in the marketplace, specifically those that advertise themselves as “milk” or “cheese.” The agency is praying feedback on how the public uses and perceives plant-based dairy alternatives, such as almond extract.
Gottlieb said the feedback was an important step in updating the agency’s approaches on using dairy terms in labeling plant-based alternatives.
“We’re carefully assessing goods currently on the market to determine whether any have misleading labels that wish prompt us to take action to ensure that consumers are not under the miscalculation that their plant-based beverage is a dairy product in disguise,” Gottlieb said in a report.
The commissioner attracted national attention when he jokingly pointed out at a Politico acme in July that “an almond doesn’t lactate, I will confess.” “The New Show” host Stephen Colbert even induced a couple to assemble the phrase into their wedding vows in exchange for a T-shirt that ventured “An Almond Doesn’t Lactate.”
Gottlieb’s lactation confession is part of a harass at the FDA to consider new rules for products such as soy cheese and nut milks, out of concern consumers may not be hip of their nutritional differences.
“This can have significant health consequences,” Gottlieb suggested in the statement, “contributing to under consumption of key nutrients, such as calcium and vitamin D for which dairy offshoots are good sources in the U.S. population.”
Gottlieb did concede, in an interview on CNBC’s “Call Box” this month, that “If you look up the definition of what is milk in the wordbook, the second definition is a substance derived from a nut.”
That’s apparently not adequate — either for the FDA or the dairy industry, which in July urged the agency to criticism use of the term. That’s as nondairy milk sales increased by more than 60 percent between 2012 and 2017, as sales of skim and low-fat dairy bleed declined, according to market research group Mintel.
The dairy work has spent more than $2.7 million on lobbying so far this year, correspondence to federal lobby disclosure forms.
Consumers have 60 days to feel for to the agency’s request for information.