All-Natural But Still 'Imitation'? The Strange Case Of The Skim Milk Label

For three years, Mary Lou Wesselhoeft, a 61-year-old Florida Panhandle dairy farmer, had been selling milk at nearby farmers markets and health food stores in an effort to keep her dairy farm afloat. The last thing she was trying to do was to dupe customers who went out of their way to score a cold bottle of her Ocheesee Creamery pasteurized skim milk.

But Florida authorities saw it differently.

Because Wesselhoeft doesn't add vitamins back in once the fat is removed, officials say her skim milk is considered an "imitation milk product" and in 2012 insisted that she begin labeling it "Non-Grade 'A' Milk Product, Natural Milk Vitamins Removed" — wording Wesselhoeft is dead set against adding.

"They want it to be called imitation milk, but it isn't," she says. "We just want to be able to tell the truth about our milk. We never claimed there was vitamin A in there," Wesselhoeft says.

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