{"id":23712,"date":"2024-10-08T09:00:55","date_gmt":"2024-10-08T13:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/?p=23712"},"modified":"2024-09-23T13:31:29","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T17:31:29","slug":"what-does-dairy-free-mean-on-a-food-label","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2024\/10\/08\/what-does-dairy-free-mean-on-a-food-label\/","title":{"rendered":"What Does \u201cDairy-Free\u201d Mean on a Food Label?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>by Reed Mangels, PhD, RD<\/p>\n

\u201cDairy-free\u201d seems to be showing up more commonly on food labels, in some cases it seems to be used instead of \u201cvegan.\u201d What does it mean when a product is labeled \u201cdairy-free\u201d?<\/p>\n

Terms such as \u201cdairy-free\u201d or \u201cmilk free\u201d or even \u201cvegan\u201d or \u201cvegetarian\u201d are not defined by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). According to the FDA, when claims like these are made, they must be truthful and not misleading.<\/p>\n

The FDA recently released results of a study they conducted in which samples of dark chocolate and products containing dark chocolate, all of which were labeled as \u201cdairy-free,\u201d were tested for the presence of cow\u2019s milk. Products tested included chocolate bars, chocolate chips, chocolate chip cookies and chocolate syrup. A total of 210 samples were collected in stores in Pennsylvania and Michigan in 2022 and 2023. Of these, 13 samples, made by three different companies, tested positive for cow\u2019s milk. Names of companies were not released but 1 product was a cookie and the other 12 were chocolate bars. All of the products that tested positive for milk had \u201cdairy-free\u201d on the label and had advisory statements that are supposed to indicate the possible presence of milk to consumers such as \u201cmade in a facility that also processes milk.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cow\u2019s milk that was detected in the samples could have been due to a labeling error or to cross-contamination from dairy ingredients being produced on the same equipment. FDA met with the three companies whose product or products tested positive. Two companies removed \u201cdairy-free\u201d from the label of their products. The other company agreed to remove \u201cdairy-free\u201d from the label if they could not determine where the milk came from and eliminate the source of milk from their products.<\/p>\n

It seems clear that \u201cdairy-free\u201d on a product label is not an absolute guarantee that there is no cow\u2019s milk in that product. The FDA suggests that consumers for whom the presence of dairy is a concern to \u201ccontact the manufacturers and inquire about how the product is made, including whether the product is made on equipment dedicated to making dairy-free chocolate, whether the ingredients used are free of milk, and whether the manufacturer tests its products with \u2018dairy-free\u2019 claims for the presence of milk.\u201d<\/p>\n

To read more about this study see FDA\u2019s Summary Report: FY 22\/23 Sample Collection and Analysis of Retail Dairy-Free Dark Chocolate and Chocolate-Containing Products for Milk Allergen.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Reed Mangels, PhD, RD \u201cDairy-free\u201d seems to be showing up more commonly on food labels, in some cases it seems to be used instead of \u201cvegan.\u201d What does it mean when a product is labeled \u201cdairy-free\u201d? Terms such as \u201cdairy-free\u201d or \u201cmilk free\u201d or even \u201cvegan\u201d or \u201cvegetarian\u201d are not defined by the US […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23712"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23714,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23712\/revisions\/23714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}