When it comes to the products we buy or consume, names matter. We expect a product’s name to tell us about what it is, what it will do, and whether it will make our lives better. But when the name of a product leads us to believe it is something that isn’t true, we can be misled into buying something that doesn’t give us what we expected.
That’s why I am concerned that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continues to allow dairy imitation producers to use terms associated with dairy products, like milk, cheese, and yogurt, when marketing these products.
I know Idahoans don’t actually think that a beverage labeled “almond milk” or “soy milk” is real cow’s milk. But I also know that when a plant-based alternative is labeled as “milk,” consumers tend to believe that it provides the same health benefits and nutrient profile as the dairy product. For example, we know that milk has up to eight times as much protein as almond-based drinks, but, according to a 2018 consumer survey, 73 percent of consumers inaccurately believed that almond-based drinks were an equal or better source of protein than milk.
This misinformation also hurts American dairy producers. Idaho’s dairy producers rank third in the nation for dairy production and make a significant contribution to our state’s economy. For generations, these hard-working men and women have produced high-quality and nutritious products. But more and more we see producers of plant-based alternatives exploiting the good reputation of dairy to sell their product. They use the word “milk” on their labels to market their plant-based product as an alternative for dairy milk when, in fact, it is a poor nutritional substitute for the real thing. It leaves consumers with a false sense that dairy products are nutritionally inferior when the exact opposite is true.
