The U.S. Food & Drug Administration will hold a public meeting Sept. 27 to discuss its effort to modernize standards of identity as part the agency's Nutrition Innovation Strategy. The meeting is titled “Horizontal Approaches to Food Standards of Identity Modernization” -- horizontal being the idea that by making changes to food standards of identity that cut across categories, goals such as “innovation” and “flexibility” may be encouraged.

Although there is support for modernization, the dairy industry has some concerns about the changes and potential lack of transparency for consumers.

Clay Detlefsen, senior vice president for regulatory and environmental affairs at the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), plans to provide comments at the meeting. In a podcast ahead of the meeting, Detlefsen said FDA should proceed with caution. Food products are unique, and an across-the-board approach could have unintended consequences that could harm consumers, he said.

“It’s a nice approach on its face, but I think when you start to get into details, concerns start to surface,” he said.

“Horizontal” changes could mean that ice cream could end up not actually having any cream in it.

“Consumers have to get what they expect,” Detlefsen said. “When I get a gallon of ice cream, I expect cream.”

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The crux of the issue focuses on offering consumers transparency and not misleading them. “If we go down this road, consumers could definitely be misled,” he warned.

The dairy industry maintains that it wants FDA to promote honesty, whether it pertains to the ingredients or a certain level of nutrition.