31/03/2026
Ever thought about pouring “mammalian secretions” into your morning coffee? ☕️🥛
While that is the scientific definition of milk, a major legal battle in the UK has highlighted why the words we use for food are about more than just technical accuracy. ⚖️ 🐄
The UK Supreme Court recently blocked Oatly™ from trademarking the phrase “Post Milk Generation,” upholding strict regulations that reserve the term “milk” exclusively for dairy. In the EU and UK, plant-based alternatives must be labelled as a “drink” or “beverage.”
In contrast, regulators in Australia and New Zealand have followed a more flexible path, permitting terms like “soy milk” because the context provides enough clarity for shoppers.
In a recent interview on JOY 94.9, Dr Heather Bray discussed how “milk” is defined by more than just its biological origin. While the UK ruling focuses on technical “truth in labelling”, consumers treat the word as a functional term. It tells us how to use a product, whether it’s destined for a cereal bowl or a latte. 🥣✨
Research in Australia and New Zealand suggests that consumers are quite savvy and rarely confused by labelling, which highlights that our purchase choices are actually based on specific tastes, health needs, and personal values. 🌱
Ultimately, effective communication isn’t about forcing jargon onto shoppers. Language evolves alongside how communities interact with their food. Whether you call it a “plant-derived beverage” or “milk”, the label on the carton is doing a lot of heavy lifting in shaping how we understand our world. 🌏
📖 Read Heather’s full article here: https://theconversation.com/how-australia-and-nz-rules-on-plant-milks-differ-from-overseas-where-cows-make-the-only-milk-275923
🎙️ Listen to her radio interview on JOY Drive here: https://joy.org.au/joydrive/2026/03/26/dr-heather-bray-oat-milk-labelling-laws-and-the-fight-over-the-word-milk/
UWA School of Biological Sciences
Australian and NZ farmers have long argued only cow’s milk should be sold as ‘milk’, in line with UK and European laws. This is what our current rules allow.
