Wesselhoeft says it was a new commissioner and a change in dairy inspectors that prompted the state's actions. 'Then, out of the blue, after three years with no complaints or confusion, the state realized it didn't meet the definition of skim milk and told Mary Lou she would have to inject vitamin A into the skim milk or call it something else.' 'They were selling the milk for three years with the state's knowledge and the state inspecting it every month,' says Pearson. No governor or president has the authority to say you cannot buy milk without vitamins,' says Wesselhoeft. That's why this is a First Amendment argument. 'Nowhere in the Constitution does it give the government the right to dictate what Americans can buy or eat. They're framing it as First Amendment challenge and are now planning to appeal last week's ruling. For example, that's why jars labeled 'jam' are made from whole fruit, while 'jelly' is made from fruit juice.Īs we're seeing in the ongoing fight over GMO labeling, or in arguments being made against marketing terms like ' all natural,' there's a lot riding on the precise words companies use to sell Americans food.įor Wesselhoeft and her attorney, Justin Pearson at the Institute for Justice, a libertarian public interest law firm, the fight over Ocheesee Creamery's skim milk isn't just a labeling issue. Indeed, the Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act, implemented by the FDA, has developed standards of identity for hundreds of foods besides skim milk. Last week, a federal judge ruled that state officials are perfectly within their rights to require added vitamins as part of nutritional standards for milk. Unfortunately, it looks like the dumping will have to continue.* But, with the exception of a small amount that she is allowed to use in yogurt, she's been forced to dump hundreds of gallons of her skim milk ever since. She's still skimming her milk - the fat and vitamins that go with it are used to make butter, ice cream and whole milk products she sells. We never claimed there was vitamin A in there,' Wesselhoeft says. 'We just want to be able to tell the truth about our milk. 'They want it to be called imitation milk, but it isn't,' she says. The last thing she was trying to do was to dupe customers who went out of their way to score a cold bottle of her Ocheesee Creamery pasteurized skim milk.īut Florida authorities saw it differently.īecause Wesselhoeft doesn't add vitamins back in once the fat is removed, officials say her skim milk is considered an 'imitation milk product' and in 2012 insisted that she begin labeling it 'Non-Grade 'A' Milk Product, Natural Milk Vitamins Removed' - wording Wesselhoeft is dead set against adding.

According to regulations, without added vitamins, it can only be sold as 'imitation skim milk.'įor three years, Mary Lou Wesselhoeft, a 61-year-old Florida Panhandle dairy farmer, had been selling milk at nearby farmers markets and health food stores in an effort to keep her dairy farm afloat. Her Ocheesee Creamery pasteurized skim milk has nothing added - and that's the problem. Mary Lou Wesselhoeft is a dairy farmer in the Florida Panhandle.

Skim milk nutrition label