What’s yogurt? Industry wants greater liberty to use term
Government standards exist for a range of packaged foods, mostly for one-time pantry staples such as bread, jam and canned peas. The standards were supposed to ensure a level of quality as mass production took hold decades ago.
But writing those rules sometimes turned into a bureaucratic nightmare—peanut butter’s definition took more than a decade— and regulators eventually stopped setting new standards.
The Food and Drug Administration established a standard for foods labeled as “yogurt” in 1981 that limited its ingredients. The industry swiftly objected. The following year, the agency suspended enforcement on various provisions and allowed the addition of preservatives.
A never-finalized 2009 proposal offered a unified standard and allowed emulsifiers as well. The yogurt industry says that has cultivated confusion and left it vulnerable to lawsuits.
Adding to the confusion, the association says yogurt makers can opt to follow the 1981, 1982 or 2009 provisions in the absence of a final rule.
Standards Reviewed
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb is reviving the matter with plans to “modernize” the standards. Milk producers take it as a sign the agency will crack down on soy and almond drinks that call themselves “milk,” which the standards say comes from a cow.
In addition to finalizing a yogurt standard, the International Dairy Foods Association is renewing its push to get rid of the requirement that regular yogurt have at least 3.25 percent milkfat. It says that causes confusion over products that mix low-fat yogurt with ingredients like coconut that push up the fat content. The resulting product can be called neither “low-fat” nor “yogurt,” the association says.
Instead, the association says regular yogurt should simply be required to have more than three grams of fat—whether it’s from milkfat, coconut, chocolate or other ingredients. If the overall product has three grams of fat or less, then it could be labeled low-fat in line with the broader definition of “low fat,” the group says. /