Letter to FDA in Support of Citizen Petition filed by the Good Food Institute

SUMMARY

The Animal Law Committee sent a letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in support of the Citizen Petition to Recognize the Use of Established Common and Usual Compound Nomenclatures for Food filed by the Good Food Institute on March 2, 2017. The Petition requests that the FDA promulgate regulations amending 21 C.F.R. § 102.5 to clarify that names of new food products may generally reference familiar ones—for instance, that “almond milk” (a comparatively new product) can include the term “milk” (a familiar product). Notably, the proposed regulation is not limited to expressly allowing names of plant-based products such as soy milk and almond milk, but would also allow product names such as rice noodles, cornbread, and goat milk, among other products. The Petition correctly argues that courts have held that the names of plant-based milks are not deceptive and that prohibiting the use of the word milk in many plant-based products would be a violation of the First Amendment.