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Other Facets of the Alternative Foods Debacle
The alternative foods movement has now expanded widely enough that the Plant Based Foods Alliance has introduced its own certification mark for plant-based foods, and the controversy over alternative foods now goes beyond alternative meats and alternative milks. In particular, there has been some controversy in recent years relating to “vegan mayonnaise,” which is prepared without eggs. In 2015, for example, Hampton Creek faced an FDA investigation into its health and nutrition claims for Just Mayo, its vegan mayonnaise. The Company avoided the full ire of agency enforcement action by changing its label. Still, even “vegan cheese,” which contains no dairy, has faced some controversy over self-classification as cheese, with some outrage focusing on claims that it does not taste enough like conventional cheese to be labeled as “cheese.” Additionally, it is clear that these sorts of foods have not escaped scrutiny under current law. Indeed, as discussed elsewhere in this blog, Arkansas’s labeling law targeting alternative meats also extends to rice—the state is the nation’s largest rice producer—and prohibits labeling alternative rice products, such as cauliflower rice, as “rice.”