International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) have filed a petition with the FDA asking the FDA to alter the definition of “milk” to allow for the use of non nutritive sweeteners such as aspartame, sucralose and stevia. Natural News the newsletter has reported that these products will not be properly labeled, hiding from consumers the fact that these non nutritive sweeteners are in their milk.
In fact, according to Marcia Mc Glochlin , Director of Food Safety and Regulatory Affairs at Clover Stornetta Farms, the intention to hide aspartame from the consumers is not true. We are talking about primarily flavored milk ( chocolate milk, strawberry milk) products that are available to students through their school cafeterias. There are State and Federal requirements for school offerings that the products are to be calorie sensitive and have limited amounts of sugar, and thus the need for non nutritive sweeteners, such as aspartame, stevia, or a number of other federally approved non nutritive sweeteners. Currently, a carton labeled as chocolate milk cannot have stevia or any other non nutritive sweetener in it. It must be emphasized, that any sweeteners currently are, and must, be listed on the carton in the ingredient statement.
There are currently several approved completely natural non nutritive sweeteners like stevia and monk fruit, and with the increased interest in natural ingredients and their potential for use, there are other natural sweeteners in the process of being developed and approved.
This petition was submitted for approval several years ago, and is only now resurfacing to get passed. The reason it is resurfacing now is to get comments from the public.