Utah ag department will rewrite proposed milk product labeling law

By Stephanie Hebert

March 18, 2008 | The new labeling law that the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food proposed last month expired at the public hearing recently.

The UDAF has proposed a new law governing the mislabeling of food, milk, and milk products in Utah. The proposed law can be found at False or Misleading Food, Milk, and Dairy Products Label. The UDAF was trying to guard the consumer against false advertising mainly with dairy products from cows treated with the recombinant form of the hormone, bovine somatotropin, or rBST.

The new law stated that producers couldn't label their products as hormone free, or not treated with rBST, without putting a disclaimer stating that the particular product is no different from a product that uses milk from a cow treated with rBST (State of Utah Department of Agriculture). For more information regarding the press release you can find it on the Utah Department of Agriculture website.

This proposed rule had its day in court on Feb. 25 which resulted in the UDAF deciding to consider all opinions spoken. The UDAF decided to rewrite the proposed rule before officially enacting it

"Anyone that says hormone free was out of line period to start with ,and that's a clarification that needed to happen for a long time," said Pete Schropp, owner and operator of Rockhill Creamery, a small dairy that makes artisan cheeses in Richmond. For more information you can visit his website at Rockhill Creamery. Schropp elects not to use rBST in his cows.

In 1985 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration determined that meat and milk from cows treated with rBST is no different from that of a cow not treated with rBST and the products are safe for human consumption. Monsanto, the only producer of rBST, says that cows given rBST become more efficient milk producers, without jeopardizing milk quality, or animal health and generating less waste per gallon of milk produced. Therefore producing more milk with less cost to the consumer.

The main difference, Schropp said, is how the milk is produced and not the quality of the milk itself. The problem lies with the UDAF trying to regulate advertising, Schropp said. After all the first amendment of the constitution of the U.S. says that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

Daniel Buttars of Butterdell Dairy in Lewiston doesn't have a problem with the proposed labeling law he thinks the consumer should know what they are buying.

"They are paying the extra money for it they might as well know about it," Buttars said. Buttardell Dairy currently uses rBST but they are phasing it out because of rising production costs associated with using the hormone.

"It goes beyond what we require on other labels," Douglas Jackson-Smith, a sociology professor at Utah State University who studied rural communities, said. Jackson-Smith pointed out that the Utah's Own label doesn't require a disclaimer saying that just because a product doesn't come from Utah it is the same quality of a product that is produced in Utah.

Just as there is no post hoc test for milk products to verify if rBST was used in the production of the milk there is no post hoc test for products made in Utah, Jackson Smith said, once it is on the store shelves the consumer can't know if the label is telling the truth or not.

Utah's Own was a program started to promote local economy in Utah. If a product is produced solely in Utah then the producer can apply to the program and will be stamped with the Utah's own label. There by informing the consumer which products were produced locally and which were produced out of state (Utah's Own). For a list of producers or more information check out their website Utah's Own.

Jackson-Smith said that he thinks the new law will make producers more careful about what health benefits they claim their products may have over another. Dairy products make from milk produced from cows treated with rBST is not any more or less healthy for the consumer.

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