Plant-based milk alternatives can keep calling themselves "milk," the Food and Drug Administration said on Wednesday. 

The agency commissioned and conducted focus groups and found that the term "milk" is "strongly rooted in consumers' vocabulary when describing and talking about plant-based alternatives," the FDA said in draft guidance. Consumers are aware that plant-based milks are different from dairy milks, research found. 

"Although many plant-based milk alternatives are labeled with names that bear the term 'milk' (e.g., 'soy milk'), they do not purport to be nor are they represented as milk," the FDA said.

More to come.

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