That’s the view of CEO of the Australian Dairy Products Federation Janine Waller.
Ms Waller, a dietician by profession, was commenting on the decision by the UK courts to prevent a European oat product marketing itself as milk.
Ms Waller said the industry had been wrestling with the misidentification issue for more than a decade, since the emergence of products advertised as oat milk and soy milk.
The dairy industry sees the products as trading off milk’s nutritional reputation.
“They are not the same. There is that element of trading off the credentials of dairy,” Ms Waller said, referring to the scientific basis for milk’s nutritional value.
“But is there the assumption by putting that word milk on a product, that it is going to be nutritionally similar or equivalent.
“And that's our biggest concern is: how do you address that?
“At the end of the day it is choice... and about labelling.
“You stand on your own credentials of each of your products.
“And that's really what we're working towards.”
Ms Waller was one of the guest speakers at a health innovation seminar run by the Committee for Greater Shepparton on March 3.
She reminded the audience that Greater Shepparton was at the heart of the national dairy industry, being one of the major milk producers in the biggest dairy state of the country.
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