ALMOND BREEZE MILK LAWSUIT FREE

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a lawsuit against Blue Diamond Growers that claimed the company “mislabeled its almond beverages as ‘almond milk’ when they should be labeled ‘imitation milk’ because they substitute for and resemble dairy milk but are nutritionally inferior to it.” In a 5-page, unpublished opinion, the court easily rejected those arguments. Several federal courts have also rejected the argument that calling non-cow milk “milk” is misleading. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) GettyĪnd as the Institute for Justice pointed out in its comment, “just like in Ocheesee Creamery, there is an obvious less-burdensome approach to banning the terms, and it is one already being used: the nutrition facts panel.” Lawmakers on the committee threatened to subpoena information from the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) regarding their delayed responses about drug distributors that poured in millions of pain pills into West Virginia. (FDA), testifies during a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing concerning federal efforts to combat the opioid crisis, Octoin Washington, DC. Scott Gottlieb, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. “The FDA has concerns that the labeling of some plant-based products may lead consumers to believe that those products have the same key nutritional attributes as dairy products, even though these products can vary widely in their nutritional content.” That reasoning would also invalidate the very similar rationale Gottlieb gave for the proposed crackdown on plant-based milks: Moreover, the court found that the state’s censorship was “clearly more extensive than necessary to serve its interest in preventing deception and ensuring adequate nutritional standards.” There were “numerous less burdensome alternatives, ” the court added, that would have “involved additional disclosure without banning the term ‘skim milk.’” Court of Appeals sided with Mary Lou and ruled that “the Creamery’s use of the words ‘skim milk’ to describe its skim milk is not inherently misleading” and is protected under the First Amendment. Refusing to be cowed into submission, Mary Lou fought back, and with the Institute for Justice, hauled the Department into federal court. Ironically, in its crusade against “misleading” speech, the labels the Department approved would have been wrong or just downright confusing: It would have required Ocheesee Creamery to mislabel the skim milk as either “imitation skim milk,” “imitation milk product,” or “Non-Grade ‘A’ Milk Product, Natural Milk Vitamins Removed.” Regulators offered Mary Lou a choice: She could stop selling her additive-free skim milk or she could stop calling it skim milk. But Mary Lou prides herself on selling only all-natural, additive-free products, a business philosophy that would be undermined if she were forced to artificially inject Vitamin A. Florida law (based on federal regulations) banned the sale of skim milk, unless Vitamin A was added back in. In 2012, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services slapped her creamery with two stop orders.

Yet her simple, truthful labels earned the ire of Florida regulators. So for nearly three years, Mary Lou advertised and sold her skim milk as skim milk. Her skim milk had exactly one ingredient: skim milk.

During the skimming process, the skim milk loses almost all of its naturally occurring Vitamin A, which is located in the cream. For almost three years, Mary Lou sold all-natural skim milk, a byproduct of producing cream.

ALMOND BREEZE MILK LAWSUIT FREE

In its comment, IJ cited a federal appellate court decision that vindicated the free speech rights of Mary Lou Wesselhoeft, who runs a small creamery on her farm in Calhoun County, Florida. “The government does not have the power to change the dictionary.” “If a consumer is confused about the source of a product labeled ‘almond milk,’ then he has bigger problems than being confused about which milk to buy,” said Institute for Justice Senior Attorney Justin Pearson, who authored IJ’s comment to the FDA.

Almond breeze milk lawsuit