Finally, definition of yogurt appears on way

NEW YORK — If low-fat yogurt is blended with fatty ingredients like coconut or chocolate, is it still low- fat? Is it even yogurt?

The U.S. government has rules about what can be called “yogurt,” and the dairy industry says it’s not clear what the answers are. Now it’s hopeful it will finally get to use the term with greater liberty, with the Trump administration in the process of updating the yogurt definition.

The industry push to open up the yogurt standard illustrates how fraught it can be to define a food, especially as manufacturing practices and consumer tastes change.

Government standards exist for a range of packaged foods, mostly for onetime 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.

That’s part of the reason foods like ketchup have rules, but others like mustard don’t.

The ongoing dispute over yogurt offers a taste of how sour things can get.

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 The yogurt industry is hoping to get clearer rules from the Food and Drug Administration of what can be called yogurt. vulnerable to lawsuits.

Adding to the confusion, yogurt makers can opt to follow the 1981, 1982 or 2009 provisions in the absence of a final rule.

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 “lowfat” nor “yogurt,” the association says.

Instead, the association says regular yogurt should simply be required to have more than 3 grams of fat.