25% of flavored milks use no actual milk

Six flavored milk products from Dongwon F&B do not use any raw milk. / Captured from Dongwon F&B’s Facebook

By Chyung Eun-ju

When walking down the supermarket aisle, make sure to check the ingredients, especially when buying a carton of flavored or plain milk.

Recent research found that many dairy product labels are misleading because a quarter of flavored milk products in South Korea do not contain actual milk.

More than 81 percent of milk and processed milk products were found to have no milk or less than 50 percent milk content, according to Consumer Research on Tuesday.

The agency investigated 60 types of so-called “milk products.”

Fifty-seven 57 percent were found to have less than 50 percent of raw milk content, while 25 percent had no milk content.

The products with deceptively low milk ingredients were made with modified or reconstituted milk ingredients, making the products a kind of dairy beverage.

Reconstituted milk is made from mixing skim milk powder with water and butter or cream.

The agency investigated all products that used the term “milk” on their labels.

“Snoopy Chocolate-Flavored Milk,” a private-label product from Maeil sold at major South Korean convenience franchise GS25; Dongwon F&B’s “Banana-Flavored Milk” and “Denmark Strawberry Milk;” and Seoul Milk’s “Seoul Strawberry Milk” used zero percent milk.

Purmil’s “Ghana Chocolate Milk,” “Black Soybean Milk” and “Raw Banana Flavored Milk,” among others, misled consumers by indicating raw milk and reconstituted milk jointly on their labels.

Purmil said it had replaced raw milk with reconstituted milk when raw milk was out of stock.

“I drank processed milk thinking it would be healthy,” said Lee Sang-yul, an economics student at Seoul National University.

“Now that I know it was not actually milk, it feels like I was scammed.”

Namyang Dairy Products’ “Delicious Milk” series had only 30-40 percent raw milk. Dongwon F&B’s “Denmark Milk” series and Lotte Mart’s private-label product “Choice L” contained less than 50 percent raw milk.

Reconstituted milk is cheaper to store and easier to transport than raw milk, making it more cost-effective.

Reconstituted milk from overseas costs less than half as much as raw milk _ the former has less vitamin A and minerals than the latter.

Only 44 of the vetted products accurately labeled the ingredients, in which 40 products used reconstituted milk from overseas.

Using the term “milk” on products with no milk is not illegal. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) in 2012, products that use ingredients similar to milk can use the term on their labels.

In 2012, farmers asked the ministry to allow them to use the term “milk” on powdered products to deal with the overproduction of milk.

The ministry granted the request on condition that the products had the proper classification written at the bottom.

“Children and parents will surely misinterpret the products as fresh milk,” said Consumer Research chief Choi Hyun-suk. “A more accurate standard of classification has to be made.”

Choi also urged consumers to read labels with caution.