The National Milk Producers Federation today filed a citizen petition with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, outlining a labeling solution to the use of dairy terms on non-dairy products as the agency considers public input from a recently concluded comment period.

The petition reinforces current FDA labeling regulations, with some additional clarification, to show how marketplace transparency can be enhanced and consumer harm from confusion over nutritional content can be reduced. It also addresses several specious arguments raised by marketers of vegan foods as part of the ongoing debate on dairy labeling, such as the false idea that creating consistent, clear labeling of non-dairy products would somehow limit the use of dairy terms on products that clearly aren’t marketed as dairy substitutes, such as peanut butter. (The petition may be accessed here.)

The March Federal order Class I base milk price is $15.98 per hundredweight, up 68 cents from February, $2.62 above March 2018, and the highest Class I price since October 2018. It equates to about $1.37 per gallon, up from $1.15 a year ago. The three-month Class I average is at $15.47, up from $14.35 at this time a year ago and compares to $17.03 in 2017. Courtesy Mielke Market Weekly