Got Fat? Milk Labels To Become More Precise

New milk labels that more accurately reflect fat content are headed for the grocery dairy case, a move that health advocates say will help Americans take better control of their diets.

By Jan. 1, the dairy industry must switch to a labeling system that eliminates “lowfat” from 2 percent milk. Instead, 2 percent will be called “reduced fat,” because it actually has two-thirds the fat of whole milk.

Milk with zero fat will be called “fat-free” or “nonfat,” instead of “skim,” and 1 percent milk will be “lowfat.” The label for whole milk - which contains about 3.2 percent fat - won’t change.

Milk was left out of more precise federal labeling requirements passed by Congress three years ago. The industry says its product didn’t fit certain Food and Drug Administration definitions, but others attribute the omission to the clout of dairy-state lawmakers.

Whatever the reason, FDA ordered the change last year after complaints that current labeling misleads. The dairy industry was given a year to make the transition.

“This is going to save people’s lives,” said anti-cholesterol crusader Phil Sokoloff, who spearheaded the campaign to make the labels more reliably reflect fat content. “We’re clogging a lot of arteries.”

Sokoloff, a wealthy Omaha, Neb., businessman, has spent $9 million in the past decade on newspaper ads taking on purveyors of cholesterol in the food industry. His other successes include persuading McDonald’s and other fast-food chains to stop cooking french fries in animal fat and convincing food processors of the dangers of tropical oils.