{"id":2498,"date":"2013-05-23T17:16:49","date_gmt":"2013-05-23T17:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/new_milk_rules_not_such_a_sweet_deal_for_consumers\/"},"modified":"2021-06-30T10:04:23","modified_gmt":"2021-06-30T10:04:23","slug":"new_milk_rules_not_such_a_sweet_deal_for_consumers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/new_milk_rules_not_such_a_sweet_deal_for_consumers\/","title":{"rendered":"New milk rules &#8212; not such a sweet deal for consumers &#8211; National Consumers League"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- content_before_flip_start --><a href=\"https:\/\/savvyconsumer.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/02\/92_green.jpg\"><\/a><strong>By Teresa Green, Linda Golodner Food Safety &amp; Nutrition Fellow<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Since NCL\u2019s founding in 1899, our organization has been dedicated to providing consumers with clear and accurate information that enables them to make informed decisions.\u00a0 In our work on various food labeling and food safety issues, we follow this same philosophy, and so it was in this frame of mind that we this week commented on a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foodsafetynews.com\/2013\/05\/comment-period-on-labeled-sweeteners-in-milk-ends-tonight\/\">petition<\/a> from the dairy industry that is pending before FDA.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, when a producer substitutes artificial sweetener for sugar in flavored milks, they must indicate this on the front of the product label with a clear statement such as \u201clow calorie.\u201d In an attempt to address the criticisms of nutrition advocates fighting diligently against rising rates of childhood obesity and new school meal standards, producers have reformulated their products to remove sugar, a source of extra calories in chocolate milk.\u00a0 The natural replacement has been artificial sweeteners.\u00a0 However, when these companies use artificial sweeteners, they must indicate that they have done so by including statements such as &#8220;low calorie&#8221; on the front of the package.\u00a0 The petition before FDA <a href=\"https:\/\/www.federalregister.gov\/articles\/2013\/02\/20\/2013-03835\/flavored-milk-petition-to-amend-the-standard-of-identity-for-milk-and-17-additional-dairy-products\">asks that this requirement be removed<\/a>, arguing that the label discourages children from drinking less caloric, and therefore healthier, products.\u00a0 Contrary to some reports, these products would still be required to list artificial sweeteners on their ingredient lists.<\/p>\n<p>In our formal comments filed earlier this week, NCL came out against implementation of this change.\u00a0 While we are certainly supportive of encouraging children to consume healthier products, doing so by depriving consumers of information they are accustomed to seeing is misguided.\u00a0 The \u201clow calorie\u201d statement currently alerts consumers that they need to look at the ingredient list.\u00a0 Some consumers choose to avoid artificial sweeteners and transparent labeling, on both the front and the back of the package, enables them to make consumption decisions for themselves and their children.<!-- content_before_flip_end --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Teresa Green, Linda Golodner Food Safety &amp; Nutrition Fellow Since NCL\u2019s founding in 1899, our organization has been dedicated to providing consumers with clear and accurate information that enables [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2498"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2498"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20171,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2498\/revisions\/20171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}