Got Answers?

My wife called me up today with the all-important information, "I just drank milk today." This is actually news, you see, as we aren't a milk-drinking family. Turns out she purchased something called "2% reduced fat" milk, which begged the question:

If you reduce the fat of 2% milk, isn't that 1%?

So, being the dork that I am, I did some research.



Turns out that way back in 1998, the FDA made milk companies follow the same packaging guidelines as all other food products. So from then on (according to the FDA's website) :

2 percent milk will become known, for example, as "reduced fat" or "less fat" instead of "low fat"
1 percent milk will remain "low fat" or become, for example, "little fat"
skim will retain its name or be called, for example, fat-free, zero-fat, or no-fat milk.

So the confusion started because the "reduced" in "2% reduced fat" refers to milk qua milk--not 2% in itself. Hmmmm. So the fattest milk you can get (besides whole milk) is now called "reduced fat?" Confusing, huh.

Also notice that 1% is now "low fat" and skim is now "fat free."

Now the question is: WHY? Is the FDA that bored? Just a thought for the day.