Almond or soy milk might give you a great milk mustache, but they'll never appear in a "got milk?" ad. That's because the U.S. dairy industry says neither one is the real deal. After years of Big Dairy protesting the co-opting of the term "milk," the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced in July 2018 that it will be scrutinizing the topic, and will eventually decide whether or not plant-based milks can call themselves "milk." The deadline for comments from the public is Nov. 27, 2018.
The debate is serious stuff, at least for the $38.1 billion U.S. dairy industry, which has seen demand for milk decline. A report by market research firm Mintel said total U.S. dairy milk sales had dropped 15 percent between 2012 and 2017.
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Meanwhile, customers are clamoring for alternatives such as almond, soy, coconut, rice and other plant-based milks. Non-dairy milk sales ballooned 61 percent from 2012 to 2017, with almond milk the overwhelming favorite, capturing 64 percent of plant-based milk sales. Mintel speculated that the switch in preference seemed tied to consumer belief that these plant-based milks were healthier than dairy-based milks. (It should be noted that dairy milk still commanded some $16.12 billion in sales versus $2.11 billion for plant-based milk for 2017.)