Why Label Dairy-Free Products with the Words “Milk” or “Cheese”?
All of this information may leave us quite puzzled about why dairy-free industries would even want to use words like “milk,” “cheese,” “yogurt” or “sour cream” to label their products. The reality is that many consumers of dairy-free products specifically wish to avoid dairy. Unlike a jeweler who might use the word “diamond” in a title to attract wannabe-diamond-owners to its less-expensive diamond imitations, non-dairy food producers – those who market to people who choose soy milk, Daiya cheddar strips, vegan cream cheese, and coconut-based ice-cream – plainly do not want to confuse their customers into believing that these items have dairy in them. Such confusion would hurt business as much as, for example, the impression that a food is non-Kosher would harm the business of a company that is specifically marketing Kosher products to the observant Jewish community. What, then, is motivating companies to use traditionally dairy-related words in titling their alternative foods? I canno