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September 17, 2003

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday told four companies that make milk and ice cream to stop labeling their products as free of hormones.

No milk product can truthfully be labeled hormone free, the agency said, because all milk contains naturally occurring hormones.

"FDA is committed to assuring that consumers are provided with truthful information on product labels," FDA Commissioner Dr. Mark McClellan said in a statement.

"FDA will continue to take strong action to protect American consumers from products with labeling that is false or misleading."

The agency said the makers may have wanted to say their products were free of an engineered hormone called recombinant bovine somatotropin or rbST, which is used to increase milk production.

"Before the 1993 approval of rbST, FDA determined that the recombinant, or genetically engineered form of bST is virtually identical to a cow's natural somatotropin, a hormone produced in the pituitary gland that stimulates the production of milk," the agency said.

Because the products are virtually identical, the FDA said there was no need to label milk that contains the genetically engineered form.

"Producers have no basis for claiming that milk from cows not treated with rbST is safer than milk from rbST-treated cows," the FDA added.