Page 6 - ARUBA TODAY

A6 U.S. NEWS
Saturday 29 September 2018

What’s yogurt? Industry wants greater liberty to use term

It wasn’t until 1970 that the
FDA drew a line: Peanut
butter needs to be at least
90 percent peanuts.
The Association for Dress-
ing & Sauces has also been
calling for the repeal of the
standard for French dress-
ing, given the proliferation
of dressings like Ranch and
Italian that do not have
standards. The FDA ap-
pears to be preparing to
grant that wish, according
to an April email .
Over the years, the FDA
moved away from trying
to establish new standards
in favor of requiring prod-
ucts to list ingredients and
nutrition information, said
Xaq Frohlich, a professor
of food labeling at Auburn
University.
The policy shift was partly a
response to the rise of low-
fat diets, he said. Products
that may have once been
This July 11, 2018, file photo shows yogurt on display at a grocery store in River Ridge, La. considered cheap imita-
Associated Press tions were suddenly desir-
By CANDICE CHOI took hold decades ago. Adding to the confusion, The resulting product can able because they didn’t
AP Food & Health Writer But writing those rules the association says yogurt be called neither “low-fat” conform to the standards
NEW YORK (AP) — If low-fat sometimes turned into a makers can opt to follow nor “yogurt,” the associa- for fat.
yogurt is blended with fatty bureaucratic nightmare — the 1981, 1982 or 2009 pro- tion says. LASTING DEFINITIONS
ingredients like coconut or peanut butter’s definition visions in the absence of a Instead, the association Debate around what foods
chocolate, is it still low-fat? took more than a decade final rule. says regular yogurt should can be called is popping
Is it even yogurt? — and regulators eventu- STANDARDS REVIEWED simply be required to have up again as startups de-
The U.S. government has ally stopped setting new FDA Commissioner Scott more than 3 grams of fat velop alternatives to meat
rules about what can be standards. That’s part of Gottlieb is reviving the mat- — whether it’s from milkfat, and other products. It’s a
called “yogurt,” and the the reason foods like ketch- ter with plans to “modern- coconut, chocolate or oth- reminder of how messy it
dairy industry says it’s not up have rules, but others ize” the standards. Milk pro- er ingredients. If the over- can be to spell out food
clear what the answers like mustard don’t. ducers take it as a sign the all product has 3 grams of meanings.
are. Now it’s hopeful it will The ongoing dispute over agency will crack down fat or less, then it could be “Even if they seem right
finally get to use the term yogurt offers a taste of how on soy and almond drinks labeled low-fat in line with at the moment, they can
with greater liberty, with sour things can get. that call themselves “milk,” the broader definition of very quickly become out-
the Trump administration The Food and Drug Admin- which the standards say “low fat,” the group says. dated,” said Stuart Pape,
in the process of updating istration established a stan- comes from a cow. THE PEANUT BUTTER RULE an attorney who previously
the yogurt definition. dard for foods labeled as Gottlieb has also called Industry complaints about worked for the yogurt in-
The industry push to open “yogurt” in 1981 that limited out yogurt as a category the standards aren’t new. dustry and vegan alterna-
up the yogurt standard il- its ingredients. where there have been “in- It’s one reason finalizing the tives.
lustrates how fraught it can The industry swiftly object- novations.” An FDA email rules for peanut butter was Food-makers can also get
be to define a food, es- ed. from June obtained by The such an ordeal. around existing standards
pecially as manufacturing The following year, the Associated Press through a The FDA proposed a pea- with a little creativity.
practices and consumer agency suspended en- public records request in- nut butter standard in the A product named “Bred-
tastes change. forcement on various provi- cludes “rulemaking action” late 1950s after investigat- Spred” once defied expec-
Timothy Lytton, a professor sions and allowed the addi- for yogurt, though the at- ing Jif for having just 75 per- tations for jam.
of law at Georgia State Uni- tion of preservatives. tachment with the details cent peanuts, according Cool Whip skirts the milkfat
versity, notes the economic A never-finalized 2009 pro- was not released. to Angie Boyce, a fellow at requirement for whipped
and political factors that posal offered a unified In addition to finalizing a the Johns Hopkins Berman cream. And in the yogurt
determine food standards. standard and allowed yogurt standard, the Inter- Institute of Bioethics who re- section, there’s now a non-
“These are social construc- emulsifiers as well. The yo- national Dairy Foods Asso- searched food standards. dairy product called Ca-
tions,” Lytton said. gurt industry says that has ciation is renewing its push The Peanut Butter Manu- shewgurt.
Government standards cultivated confusion and to get rid of the require- facturers Association ob- Such newcomers may be
exist for a range of pack- left it vulnerable to lawsuits. ment that regular yogurt jected, saying ingredients why the dairy industry still
aged foods, mostly for one- “What’s the rule? I mean, have at least 3.25 percent like oils and sweeteners wants some guardrails
time pantry staples such as make a rule,” said Bailey milkfat. make peanut butter tastier around yogurt.
bread, jam and canned Wood, spokesman for the It says that causes confu- and easier to spread. Dis- “You can’t make some-
peas. International Dairy Foods sion over products that mix agreement over exactly thing completely out of
The standards were sup- Association, whose mem- low-fat yogurt with ingredi- when a peanut spread the line and call it yogurt,”
posed to ensure a level of bers include Chobani, Da- ents like coconut that push turns into peanut butter spi- said John Allan of the dairy
quality as mass production none and Yoplait. up the fat content. raled into a yearslong fight. foods association.q