Regulator raises sour prospect for soy 'milk' makers

NEW YORK - Soy and almond drinks that bill themselves as "milk" in the United States may need to consider alternative language after a top regulator suggested the agency may start cracking down on use of the term.

The Food and Drug Administration signaled plans to start enforcing a federal standard that defines "milk" as coming from the "milking of one or more healthy cows". That would be a change for the agency, which has not aggressively gone after the proliferation of plant-based drinks labeled as "milk".

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb talked about the plans this week, noting there are hundreds of federal "standards of identity" spelling out how foods with various names need to be manufactured.