I’ll probably stick to asking for oat milk instead of “porridge water” or whatever the new mandated name will be. To be honest I do think calling it “milk” lets them inflate the price when it is essentially porridge water.

  • Rogue@feddit.uk
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    22 days ago

    Dairy UK had argued that it was unlawful to use “milk” in a trademark relating to “products that are not mammary secretions”.

    I think consumers need to argue that all milk should be accurately labelled as “mammary secretions”

    • OrlandoDoom@feddit.uk
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      22 days ago

      They see younger generations using less milk and this is their tantrum.

      Meat industry does this too, but aren’t as successful most of the time.

      • GreatAlbatross@feddit.ukM
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        22 days ago

        They see younger generations moving away from dairy, and claim it’s because non-dairy stole the words.

        When in my case at least, it only took a week milk-free to realise that having mild discomfort in your stomach all the time isn’t normal.
        And that drinking MOMA instead left me feeling lighter and happier.

  • houseofleft@slrpnk.net
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    22 days ago

    I find this whole “it’s not milk if it’s not dairy” argument really hard to take in good faith.

    I’m not an expert at all, but when I’ve heard people talk about these kind of decisions, it sounds like it’s normally meant to come down to consumer benefits.

    Who’s gaining here (aside from dairy lobbies)? I don’t think there’s any reasonable argument that UK citizens are confused by the term “oat milk”, and buying it because they were tricked into thinking it was a dairy product.

    • disgrunty@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      I know a person who thought that the “plant milks” are flavours of regular milk until it was explained to them. Like chocolate milk.

      All people are at least a little stupid. We’re all stupid in our own way. Something that seems obvious to you and I may seem mind-boggling to someone else.

      • steeznson@lemmy.worldOP
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        22 days ago

        Would have been hilarious if big dairy brought them into the trial as an “expert witness”.

        “Yes, that’s right ladies and gentlemen, I am a real life strawman.”

      • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        22 days ago

        Tbf especially with “almond milk” I could 100% see that. Honestly it’s more logical than “they squeeze all the juice out of the almonds” (I have no idea the process for making almond milk lmao ykwim), someone seeing it and saying “Almonds huh? Crazy, what flavor will they think of next? I’d have chosen hazelnut” is really not that big of a jump.

        Honestly I’m more surprised I didn’t think that, but iirc I was informed about it through a vegan friend before I even saw it in the store.

      • RvTV95XBeo@sh.itjust.works
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        21 days ago

        Yeah there are idiots, but what’s the harm? They may be shocked to find there’s 0 dairy, but how does that impact them? The nutrition info is on the label, as is the ingredients.

      • HumanPenguin@feddit.uk
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        21 days ago

        Law has a concept of the average idiot (cannot remember the real term). When applying confusion as a risk. Honestly milk has been used so much in English. (Coconutsand other things) I think that would fail.

        I ANAL though.

        Its more likely that oat milk is intentionally selling as a mamory milk alternative. That was made as an argument. But it is clearly a biased response from the court.

  • flamingos-cant@feddit.uk
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    22 days ago

    In 2019, Oatly applied to trademark the phrase “Post Milk Generation” but this was rejected by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) in January last year after ruling that its use of the term “milk” was “deceptive”.

    But this trademark is clearly them establishing themselves as not-milk and plenty of vegan products term themselves like this (“No Steak Pie”) without issue, it’s only dairy products that this ridiculous standard applied to them. Guess I’ll just continue to enjoy the two bottles of oat ‘drink’ I have in my fridge.

    To be honest I do think calling it “milk” lets them inflate the price when it is essentially porridge water.

    Most good oat milks will have stabilisers and vitamins (B12 especially) added to them vs if you just made some at home.

  • OrlandoDoom@feddit.uk
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    22 days ago

    RIP coconut milk.

    Funny that before oats and soy started gaining in popularity they had no problems with coconut milk.

    • HumanPenguin@feddit.uk
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      21 days ago

      Yeah. And it is clear the court is not being unbiased. Given your comment.

      It seems likely that parliment could be convinced to rule on this with enough negativity. No legal restrictions exist on the name. The dairy industry has no trademark or claim of unique use or confusion.

      Parliment has the right to rule against this by act. if they agree. IE basically passing a law restricting courts from bias against long used language terminology.

      Honestly it would require folks to write to MPs pointing out the stupidity ans bias. But enough may be annoyed by this that such a movement can be formed.

  • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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    22 days ago

    some places called nut-based milk “mylk” to avoid this legal complication.

    they could probably start doing that.

    • GreatAlbatross@feddit.ukM
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      22 days ago

      The barista grade stuff works pretty well in builders tea, honestly.
      You just have to get in the habit of shaking the carton.

      • kiterios@lemmy.world
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        22 days ago

        Oatly oat cream is a staple in my fridge at this point. It’s basically better than cream (or milk if diluted) in many recipes because it’s more heat resistant and flavour neutral.

    • scratchee@feddit.uk
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      22 days ago

      Honestly prefer it to milk in tea. I still use milk at home since I can’t be arsed to have fancy milk for porridge and tea only but at the office I’ll go for the oat milk by preference.

    • HumanPenguin@feddit.uk
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      22 days ago

      Whike its not what they do.

      If you take a wing scrape all the flesh etc off.

      And throw away the bone. The remainder would def be a boneless wing.

      So there real lie is the idea its only wing meat not all the crappy meat mashed together.

  • GoodShowSir@feddit.uk
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    22 days ago

    I love me some porridge water. Especially a porridge water latte.

    You know what, I have zero problem calling it that, own it oatly! :D

  • FourPacketsOfPeanuts@lemmy.world
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    22 days ago

    I don’t like oat milk but it’s more milk-like than skimmed UHT (bleurgh…). But I guess the line had to get drawn somewhere…