When is milk not milk?

So what is that white liquid coming out of the long life packs of soy, rice or almond milk?

Is it milk or is it not? That is now the big question.

The word “milk” is used for these liquids, because it looks like it and it is an easy to use marketing tool, but should it be allowed?

Milk is considered to be the secretation of a mammalian female and that sure isn’t what comes when you crush soy beans or almonds.

So there is an ever increasing demand to not allow these products to be called “milk”.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the latest authority to be considering this issue, with it’s current review of the labelling requirements for the plant based “milks”.

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said; “Food labels — including the name of food — inform consumers about what they’re buying, and standards of identity are used to ensure that foods have the characteristics expected by consumers. The information provided through food labeling must be truthful and not misleading.”

The main issue here is that nutritionally the plant “milks” are nowhere near the same as dairy milk, and there is a fear that people do not know or consider this when drinking them. This means that people who do not drink dairy milk may be missing out on vital nutrients, but believe that they are just fine.

France has already made the move toward only having “milk” used for mammalian milk, be it from cows or other mammals.

The real question is this – if we can’t call the plant based products  milk– what will we be calling them? It has have a name that makes it clear what it is, and yet attractive enough that people will want to buy it. Interesting huh?