• Home
    • About
      • Home
      • About the Site
      • The Authors
      • Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
      • Email me
    • Reviews
      • List of All Reviews
      • Best of Portland by year
        • Reader Survey: Best of Portland Food 2017
        • Best of Portland 2015
      • Steakhouse Roundup
        • Steakhouse Reviews Introduction
        • El Gaucho Steakhouse
        • Morton’s Steakhouse
        • Ringside Steakhouse
        • Ruth’s Chris
        • Steakhouse – Results
      • Product/Business Reviews
        • Retailer Reviews
        • Product Reviews
    • Topics
      • Food Writing
        • Alcohol Related
          • Beer
          • Wine
          • Spirits
        • April Fools Stories For Portland
        • Contests and Competition
        • Food Memories
        • Travel Writing
      • Authors / Book Reviews
      • Cheese information
      • Interviews: Honest dialog with people in the Portland food industry
      • Portland Food and Restaurant News and Discussion
      • Recipes
    • Guides
      • Guide to Portland coffee
        • Portland Coffee Guide
        • A Map of our favorite Portland coffeehouses
        • Reader Survey: Best Coffeehouses in Portland 2017
      • Guide to Local Wine Shops
      • Guide to Portland Bakeries
      • Guide to Portland Distilleries
      • Guide to Portland’s Beer Shops
    Portland Food and Drink

    Portland Food and Drink

    Restaurant News and Information For Portland Oregon Area Restaurants and Bars

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Send me email!

    Dairy industry trying to pull a fast one on the consumer – hide Ingredients

    By PDX Food Dude Last Update March 7, 2014 2 Comments

    The National Milk Producer’s Federation and the International Dairy Foods Association has submitted a petition to the FDA to allow for the addition of sweeteners as a flavoring ingredient for milk and 17 other dairy products. The catch? They want to remove notices on the front of the carton that the milk is artificially sweetened or reduced calorie. In other words, they want to put controversial products such as Aspartame into milk without labeling it as such – you’ll have to read the fine print on the nutritional label.

    The IDFA and NMPF claim the proposed amendments would “promote more healthful eating practices and reduce childhood obesity by providing for lower-calorie flavored milk products” since many children are more inclined to drink flavored milk products than unflavored milk.

    …If the standard of identity for milk is amended as requested by petitioners, milk manufacturers could use non-nutritive sweeteners in flavored milk without a nutrient content claim in its labeling. 

    …The petition states that flavored milk labels that bear nutrient content claims such as “reduced calorie” are unattractive to children. 

    Instead, they want to lie about it – they can make milk nice and sweet like soft drinks! Our kids will drink it, the Dairy Foods Association will sell a lot more, and due to the increased consumption by children, school lunch programs will appear to be healthier and overall meals will contain less calories, therefor making it easier to meet government school lunch requirements. It’s a win win!

    Accordingly, the petitioners state that milk flavored with non-nutritive sweeteners should be labeled as milk without further claims so that consumers can “more easily identify its overall nutritional value.”

    Cutting through the gobbledy gook, consumers are so darn confused by all of these labels, we’ll just take all those  extra words off of the cartons. 

    More from the Office of the Federal Register –

    …IDFA and NMPF argue that nutrient content claims such as “reduced calorie” are not attractive to children, and maintain that consumers can more easily identify the overall nutritional value of milk products that are flavored with non-nutritive sweeteners if the labels do not include such claims. Further, the petitioners assert that consumers do not recognize milk—including flavored milk—as necessarily containing sugar. Accordingly, the petitioners state that milk flavored with non-nutritive sweeteners should be labeled as milk without further claims so that consumers can “more easily identify its overall nutritional value.”

    Other dairy products which will be affected are “acidified milk, cultured milk, sweetened condensed milk, nonfat dairy milk, nonfat fortified dry milk, evaporated milk, dry cream, heavy cream, light cream, sour cream, light whipping cream, eggnog, half-and-half, yoghurt, low fat yogurt, and nonfat yogurt”.

    It’s a slippery slope, and if this bill passes, we’ve just added grease to the skids. It is quietly being pushed through – there are only 43 days left for public comments. You can read all of the information from the Office of the Federal Register and comment on the proposed changes here.

    Related

    Category: Portland Food and Restaurant News and Discussion.

    Previous Post: « Bluehour Closed for Lunch Friday After Fire
    Next Post: Camas Davis and Portland Meat Collective Featured in NY Times »

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Ross Pullen says

      April 8, 2013 at 11:33 am

      Hey Food Dude!……Bravo to you for bringing this mess out into the open for the many of us who would not otherwise know it was happening. Here is hoping some folks get out there and voice their feelings about these potential negative consumer
      practices!

      Ross Pullen

      Reply
    2. Michael Wall says

      April 10, 2013 at 10:03 am

      I like how they argue that “reduce calorie” won’t be attractive to children. Since when do children go to the grocery store and buy gallons of milk?

      Reply

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    © 2023 · PortlandFoodandDrink.com • See Terms of Service and Privacy Policy