If low-fat yogurt is blended with fatty ingredients like coconut or chocolate, is it still low-fat? Is it even yogurt? We’ve heard the arguments about naming meat and milk (see Fake Meat at https://teen.wng.org/node/4489 and Is It Really Milk? at https://teen.wng.org/node/2719) but now yogurt is on the table—the naming table, that is.
The U.S. government has rules about what can be called “yogurt.” But the dairy industry says it’s not clear what the answers are. Rather than restrict the use of the label “yogurt” to something narrow and pure, this time the industry wants greater liberty with the term. And dairy producers hope the Trump administration will provide that freedom.
Timothy Lytton is a law professor at Georgia State University. He says “social constructions” drive the economic and political factors that make food standards. In the past, government food standards existed to ensure a level of quality as mass production of staple foods began decades ago. Bread, jam, and canned vegetables had to meet certain requirements to protect consumers. But writing those rules turned into a bureaucratic nightmare.
Defining “peanut butter” took more than a decade—only to have the label dropping in popularity in recent years. “Butter” is socially unpopular among some—especially vegans—and the dairy industry also wants to keep the name to itself. So peanut “butter” is commonly becoming peanut “spread.” Changing the name also frees producers to add more sugar or oils to the now-unregulated product. Eventually, regulators stopped setting new standards. The frustration over the debate soured them on the potential benefits—even before recent yogurt variations made it onto their plates.
It was 1981 when the Food and Drug Administration established its yogurt standard. Ingredients were limited, but the dairy industry swiftly objected. Before the issue churned into a frenzy, the agency suspended enforcement. It looked the other way as sugars, flavorings, gelatin, emulsifiers, and preservatives were added to the otherwise healthful dairy delectable. A never-finalized 2009 proposal opening up all those options officially hangs out there as an unofficial guideline—but is it enough?
“What’s the rule?” asks bewildered Bailey Wood, spokesman for the International Dairy Foods Association. That group’s members include Chobani, Dannon, and Yoplait.
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb is reviving the matter. He predicts the government will “modernize” the standards. Gottlieb says yogurt as a category has experienced “innovations” that should be accounted for. Whether that includes chocolate and sprinkles, no one yet knows for sure.
(AP Photo: A variety of single-serving yogurt products fills a refrigerated display in a River Ridge, Louisiana, grocery store.)
