FDA: Milk is not Milk

The government does not have the power to change the dictionary, but that is precisely what the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is attempting to do to keep American farms from selling wholesome, all-American skim milk.

Case info: https://ij.org/case/fda-skim-milk/

Randy Sowers learned this the hard way. He is a lifelong dairy farmer and the founder of South Mountain Creamery in Middletown, Maryland. Randy believes strongly in selling all-natural products, and that belief extends to his skim milk: Randy wants to sell 100-percent pure skim milk with no added ingredients. The only ingredient in his skim milk would be skim milk. But when Randy contacted the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture to sell his delicious product across state lines, he learned that FDA regulations prohibit him from honestly labeling pure skim milk as “skim milk.”

The universally recognized definition of skim milk is just milk with the cream skimmed off. Pure, pasteurized, additive-free skim milk is safe to drink and legal to sell. But the FDA requires all-natural skim milk to be called either “imitation skim milk” or “imitation milk product.” The reason is the FDA has shockingly defined “skim milk” as having three ingredients. The first ingredient is pure skim milk. The other two ingredients are artificial vitamin additives that are not naturally found in skim milk. Business owners who insist on selling additive-free skim milk as “skim milk” face fines and even possible incarceration.

The First Amendment protects the right to tell the truth. That is why Randy and South Mountain Creamery are teaming up with the Institute for Justice to file a federal lawsuit challenging the FDA’s ban on labelling their products honestly.
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