Sen. Tina Smith shows early support for counter to FDA milk proposal

A proposal from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that would allow plant-based beverages to keep using the word milk in their product names is being met with some bipartisan pushback.

Last month, Minnesota Democratic U.S. Sen. Tina Smith was among the first group of Senate lawmakers to support a revived bill countering the FDA's draft guidance.

"I just think about the person [who] is in the store, and they're looking at what to buy and they might conclude from the milk brand that's attached to these plant-based products that they can get the same or even better nutrition than they could from dairy milk, when that's just not the case," Smith said in an interview.

The bipartisan bill, called the Dairy Pride Act, "would require non-dairy products made from nuts, seeds, plants, and algae to no longer be mislabeled with dairy terms such as milk, yogurt or cheese," according to a news release.

An FDA spokesperson declined to comment on pending legislation and noted in a follow-up email that "the draft guidance is not final at this time."

Minnesota Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar signed on to co-sponsor the Dairy Pride Act last week. A House version of the bill is being co-sponsored by Democratic U.S. Rep. Angie Craig along with Republican U.S. Reps. Michelle Fischbach and Brad Finstad.

The FDA's approach is also facing criticism from Minnesota GOP U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer, who said in a statement the "draft guidance would allow dishonest branding to mislead consumers about the nutritional value of these non-dairy products and threaten the livelihood of hard-working Minnesota dairy farmers."

But the proposal also recommends plant-based beverages with milk names include an additional voluntary nutrient statement on the product label if the nutrient makeup differs from dairy milk. That's resulted in some resistance from the Plant Based Foods Association. The draft also says "the term 'milk' (or 'beverage' or 'drink') should be qualified by the plant source of the food."

There's plenty of tension on the issue.

Minnesota Milk Producers Association executive director Lucas Sjostrom, whose organization supports the Dairy Pride Act, said "we have a lot of pride in what we create and it would re-establish milk as what it should be."

Yet Plant Based Foods Association vice president of policy and food systems Nicole Negowetti said in a statement that "the claims of this bill are baseless."

"The FDA recognized that consumers understand that plant-based milk alternatives are distinct products and choose to purchase plant-based milk alternatives because they are not cow's milk," Negowetti said. "The Dairy Pride act is a solution in search of a problem."

Smith had signed on to versions of the Dairy Pride Act in past years as the labeling debate went on.

"I sometimes drink almond beverage or whatever you want to call it," Smith said. "I'm not opposed to it. I just know that it's not milk."