By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER
Ohio Correspondent

REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio — After reviewing public comments, ODA Director Robert Boggs has made some changes and refiled the proposed dairy labeling rule with the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review (JCARR).

The original rule filed Feb. 7 has been modified. The rule deals with what claims may or may not be made on the labels of milk and milk-based products in Ohio.

ODA decided to slightly change the rule “in order to again attempt to establish a reasonable balance between the right of processors and retailers to make claims concerning a product and the need for consumers to have a complete and balanced presentation of information about that product,” Boggs said.

According to the refiled rule, the FDA disclaimer will be reduced to half of the original size.

It was pointed out at the public hearings that the disclaimer was actually longer than the claim, he said. The disclaimer must appear contiguously to any accurate rbST production claim in font size no less than one-half the font size of the rbST production claim.
“Finally, we will allow accurate production claims which reflect the way a dairy product was produced,” Boggs said. “An example of this might be grass-fed cows that this milk comes from cows that have been grazed instead of fed indoors or any other such accurate production claim which can be proved.”

Generally, the label may not make “compositional absence claims,” such as “Hormone Free,” or “rbST Free.” These claims are either not provable or disclaim the presence of substances which may not legally be present in milk products.

The label must include, along with any permissible production claim about the use of rbST, a statement regarding the FDA’s finding that no significant difference has been shown between milk from rbST-supplemented and non-rbST-supplemented cows, Boggs said.
Milk product processors will have 120 days to come into compliance with the rule.

“The reason we’ve been forced to take action, in the eyes of many of the processors, their way of informing the consumer of the information about the FDA statement is to bury it on the back of the label in such small print the consumer can’t even read it. I don’t think that’s balanced and fair presentation of consumer information,” Boggs said.

The department will host a public hearing April 8 at 10 am at the Reynoldsburg campus to gather public testimony on the modified proposed rule. Currently, the rule is scheduled to be reviewed by JCARR on April 21.

For more information on the rule or for public comments compiled during a series of Dairy Labeling Advisory Committee meetings go to www.ohioagriculture.gov

Milk producers and marketing organizations can contact the Dairy Division at 614-387-1094 or dairy@agri.ohio.gov

To read the modified rule, visit the Register of Ohio website at www.registerofohio.state.oh.us