This pumpkin season, we were offered the classic pumpkin-spiced lattes at coffee shops and the new created by Trader Joe’s. While Trader Joe’s did not call its product “milk,” many nondairy beverages use the term in their marketing — like Oatly’s oatmilk, Milkademia’s macadamia nut milk, NotCo’s NotMilk and the classic Silk Soymilk. But how did we go from “got milk?” to NotMilk, and is the change really that significant?
What makes “milk” milk?
The Food and Drug Administration sets legal for many food products and defines traditional cow’s milk as “the lacteal secretion, practically free from colostrum, obtained by the complete milking of one or more healthy cows.” This restricts “milk” to being defined as only coming from cows during a specific period in their milk production cycle.
“Cows produce colostrum in the first few days of lactation, so by the FDA’s rule this can’t even be called milk,” explained J. Bruce German, a distinguished professor in the Department of Food Science and Technology and a milk researcher.
And no standards exist for milk that is produced by other mammals such as goats nor can chocolate milk technically be marketed as “milk” by the current standards because it is not milked directly from a cow.
Though nondairy beverages currently have , the FDA has not adopted enforceable standards.
A new “got milk” campaign launched last year with a new look and audience. In an effort to reflect how people consume media, social media influencers are highlighted instead of celebrities to drive awareness of the campaign.
“Got milk?” to NotMilk
“Got milk?” was created to give milk marketing a facelift.
The was based on the notion that milk was important for good health, especially the calcium it contains. This was effective: It became household knowledge that drinking milk was good for your bones, but sales still declined.
The “got milk?” campaign launched in the 1990s to make milk exciting again. While milk packaging is dull due to its need to have standard volumes, “got milk?” attempted to make milk interesting by pairing it with enticing foods like cookies and cereal. The now-iconic “got milk?” milk mustaches on prominent athletes like Venus and Serena Williams and Shaquille O’Neal reaffirmed milk’s healthy properties while rebranding milk as cool. “Got milk?” was pasted everywhere, from cereal boxes to coffee shops, and successfully reshaped the perception of milk.
Fast forward a couple decades, and the selection of nondairy beverages offered to consumers have rapidly increased. Nondairy beverage sales as of 2020.
Consumers may choose nondairy beverages over traditional milk for a variety of reasons. According to professor and author Charlotte Biltekoff, the rise in environmentally conscious and health-focused diets may help drive their popularity. “What can individuals do to change their dietary habits” to reflect the need to mitigate negative effects on the climate for instance? asked Biltekoff.
Still, not all beverages are than traditional milk. Biltekoff explained that “previously, [these diets] might have meant eating something different or even sacrificing something for your values … but the promise here is that there shouldn’t be any sacrifice because there are technologies that can reproduce milk.”
claims to reproduce the flavor and mouthfeel of traditional milk using artificial intelligence-generated recipes. The term “milk” is widely applied to nondairy beverages, associating it with the qualities of traditional milk — from the flavor to the nutritional value.
Transparency is key
With the boom of nondairy beverages marketed using the term “milk,” and have called for the milk standard to be enforced. They have argued nondairy beverages are misleading consumers into purchasing nutritionally equivalent products compared to cow’s milk based on the marketing and packaging.
The 2018 class-action lawsuit Painter v. Blue Diamond Growers was based on the claim that “almond milks” should not use the term “