Labeling & Standards
July 7, 2003
FDA Issues Letter in Response to Concerns about Misleading Dairy Labeling
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Deputy Commissioner Dr. Lester Crawford recently sent a letter outlining FDA's intended actions in response to an appeal to better monitor the labeling of dairy products that use milk from cows not treated with recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST) to ensure that consumers are not being misled.
In the letter addressed to Brian Lowry of Monsanto, Dr. Crawford said that "you stated that these deceptive practices mislead consumers about the quality, safety, or value of milk and milk products from cows supplemented with rBST, and therefore, you asked FDA to take immediate action to correct this problem. We share your concerns….FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) is in the process of exploring ways to document current labeling practices for certain milk and milk products to determine if these products are labeled in a manner that is false and misleading."
According to Dr. Crawford, "FDA is also considering issuing Warning Letters to firms that are found to be marketing milk and dairy products that falsely represent a product as being free of hormones."
Producers and processors had joined Monsanto in meeting with Dr. Crawford and other key FDA officials in March to express concerns about potential negative impacts on milk sales that could occur as a result of consumer misunderstanding about the safety of all milk products. FDA reaffirmed its rBST labeling policy in December 2002; click here for more information on these rules.
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