this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2026

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109

Oatly banned from using word ‘milk’ to market plant-based products in UK (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 3 days ago by Veserr@sh.itjust.works to c/unitedkingdom@feddit.uk

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[–] jaennaet@sopuli.xyz 50 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Uh oh, better ban the term "coconut milk" too

[–] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 40 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Peanut butter too. Someone could get confused!

[–] jaennaet@sopuli.xyz 9 points 2 days ago

And butterflies obviously need to be renamed to nondairyflies

[–] flamingos@feddit.uk 46 points 3 days ago (1 children)

On Wednesday the supreme court unanimously ruled that Oatly can no longer trademark, or use, the slogan “Post Milk Generation”.

This is even dumber when you realise Oatly is explicitly prompting themselves as not-milk.

[–] Nighed@feddit.uk -4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

That doesn't stop them from calling the product "oat milk" though does it?

[–] flamingos@feddit.uk 15 points 3 days ago (1 children)

You haven't been able to do that since 2017, the European Court of Justice said so.

[–] Railcar8095@lemmy.world 13 points 3 days ago

They can't be called milk, but are under "dairy" (lacteos) on the supermarket. You can't make this shit up.

https://www.carrefour.es/supermercado/la-despensa/lacteos/bebida-vegetal-almendra/F-12d4Z1acc/c

[–] wewbull@feddit.uk 19 points 3 days ago

I'm all for clear labelling on food. I think it's important. I don't see the need to stop them using "milk" in any form. As long as it's part of hyphenate "oat-milk" there shouldn't be an issue.

[–] davidagain@lemmy.world 17 points 3 days ago

Braindead ruling. Not as braindead as "the equality act was not intended to protect trans people" which is about as stupid and fucked up as it gets, but still really pretty braindead.

[–] fakeman_pretendname@feddit.uk 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yet we can still buy "Milk of Magnesia" for poorly tummies.

magnesium hydroxide (wiki link)

[–] austinfloyd@ttrpg.network 6 points 2 days ago

The thing I find funniest about that is that milk of magnesia is rather new to the English language (1880 according to the Oxford English dictionary). Meanwhile terms like almond milk that are "too confusing" have been in the English language since Middle English.

Fucking lobbyists...

[–] MousePotatoDoesStuff@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

Malicious compliance time. Use "malk" instead and annoy them into reverting the ruling.

[–] Paragone@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

utterly-bullshit snowflakes..

Grow a pair!!

EVERYBODY KNOWS THE DIFFERENCE!

Idiocy.

[–] sirico@feddit.uk 1 points 2 days ago

Cool I don't eat or drink words. Enjoy the lack of milk in my house dairy industry.

[–] ThePantser@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 days ago (2 children)

What about Man Milk? Can I keep calling it Man Milk?

[–] davidagain@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago

Not if you're selling it in shops.

I think you're in the clear if you're just giving it away to people you like.

[–] mjr 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Only if it stays the hell away from my coffee! 🤮

[–] jaennaet@sopuli.xyz 2 points 3 days ago

Amateur

[–] Triumph@fedia.io 1 points 3 days ago

Mylk

[+] rmuk@feddit.uk -6 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (4 children)

Eh, I agree with the court. I'll still call it "oat milk" but I don't think companies should be allowed to sell it as "milk" in any form. I get they have quirky marketing and, IMHO, a great product, but allowing a corporation to use a word like that laissez-faire is pretty dangerous: oat milk isn't naturally occuring and their product has lots of extra stuff added in (sweeteners, fortifiers, etc), neither of which should be true for a productive called "milk".

[–] wpb@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

but I don’t think companies should be allowed to sell it as “milk” in any form

Well sure, and they haven't been able to in almost a decade. This court ruling is about something else. They're not calling it milk, they're not mislabelling their product. In fact, the campaign this is about is them saying explicitly this is not milk, and apparently that goes too far. I'm totally with you that food labelling should be clear, but this is not about that. This is not consumer protection. This is anticompetitive agribusiness lobbying, no more, no less.

[–] blackn1ght@feddit.uk 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

What about coconut milk?

[–] rmuk@feddit.uk -2 points 2 days ago

Natural and unadulterated. So, yeah.

[–] tenebrisnox@feddit.uk 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Have the courts come to an actual definition of what (animal) milk actually is? Last I read, neither EU or UK could define it. Milk's content differs so much from brand to brand and there's no set standard. Presumably other than it comes from an animal of some kind.

[–] rmuk@feddit.uk 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

...defines "Milk" as meaning exclusively the normal mammary secretion obtained from one or more milkings without either addition thereto or extraction therefrom.

[–] tenebrisnox@feddit.uk 2 points 2 days ago

Thank you. That was actually weirdly interesting in terms of the specificity (while also being quite broad). I can't imagine how many hours and meetings and people were involved in that.

[–] Gold_E_Lox@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 2 days ago

yes! we shall stop the capitalists by monitoring their language! this time we'll get em!