Big Dairy Peddles Adulterated Heavy Cream to Unsuspecting Consumers

As the veil of low-fat propaganda is lifted and consumers continue to return to full-fat dairy, multi-million dollar dairy companies are illegally adulterating pasteurized heavy cream to boost profits. to maximize profits.

The culprit is Highland Dairy, a large Midwestern joint venture between Prairie Farms Cooperative and Dairy Farmers of America.

Despite being a behemoth with over $500 million in annual sales, the behemoth seeks to appeal to consumers through a “farmer-owned” marketing persona for its artificial turf.

illegally mixed cream

In clear violation of FDA regulations, Hiland Dairy mixes heavy cream with hydrogenated vegetable oils, aka “trans fats.”

To add insult to injury, the label does not list which vegetable oil!

So consumers don’t know that rancid, artery-clogging GMO lipids are replacing some of the healthy fats in dairy creamers.

Is it GM soy, canola, corn, or cottonseed?

Perhaps all of the above depends on the time of year and which Hiland is cheapest available for a particular production run.

The factory code identifies the Hiland Dairy factory in Little Rock, Arkansas as the processing and packaging location for the product.

According to the November 2022 issue Milkweed:

Hydrogenated vegetable oils are not ingredients that meet the identification criteria established by the Federal Food and Drug Administration for heavy whipped cream.

Dairy products protected by FDA standards of identification are considered adulterated if they contain unapproved ingredients.

Additionally, FDA regulations consider adulterated products to be mislabeled. (1)

Milkweed goes a step further and identifies exactly which FDA regulations are being violated by including hydrogenated vegetable oils.

FDA standards for identifying heavy whipped cream are contained in Code of Federal Regulations Section 131.150. heavy cream.

Portions of part (d) of Section 131.150 are as follows: (1) The food name is “heavy cream” or “heavy whipped cream.” (twenty three)

Highland Dairy Heavy Whipped Cream Ingredients

As if hydrogenated vegetable oil wasn’t enough, several other unhealthy and carcinogenic additives appear in the ingredients list.

Grade A milk and cream, mono- and diglycerides, polysorbate 80, carrageenan, dextrose, hydrogenated vegetable oil.

In addition to the well-established cardiovascular risks of hydrogenated vegetable oils, the additive polysorbate 80 carries the risk of brain and uterine damage. Additionally, carrageenan is a potential carcinogen. (4,5)

Milkweed I posted a photo of a product that was illegally mixed into a printed matter. See scanned copy below.

Hiland Dairy tries to hide its tracks

As expected, Milkweed After the article was published, Hiland Dairy removed all traces of the illegal product from its website. Is this an attempt to cover up traces? You would think so.

But don’t hold your breath waiting for food inspectors to do their job and enforce FDA regulations.

Being an informed and sharp-eyed consumer is always your best protection!

Check labels often and be aware of similarities between good and poor quality products.

This is usually designed to trick consumers into purchasing cheaper, more profitable products.

For example, a Highland Dairy fresh cream product that contains only milk and cream is labeled almost identically to adulterated heavy whipped cream.

See the photo below for “Fresh Whipped Cream”. Compare this to the picture above of the bastard heavy whipped cream.

Hiland Dairy has also relabeled its adulterated heavy whipped cream.

It now has a different color label that omits the list of vegetable oils (see Hiland Dairy website below).

Does this mean that the cream no longer contains hydrogenated oils?

necessarily.

Amazingly, food manufacturers are allowed to put ZERO next to trans fat items on labels and remove them from ingredient lists as long as the food contains 0.5 grams or less of trans fat. per serving.

Note that the 1 quart containers below state that each serving is 1 tablespoon and have 0 grams of trans fat.

One quart contains 64 servings, so a 1-quart container could contain a whopping 32 grams (288 calories) of trans fat, which Hiland Dairy lists as zero. There is a possibility.

solution?boycott the big daily

Are you, like me, fed up with Big Dairy’s labeling tricks and marketing deceptions?

Worse, when these companies are found, they quickly adjust their labels/ingredients.

Sadly, reporting violations to the FDA does nothing in my experience over the last 30 years.

Remember, the FDA is under the Department of Health and Human Services and has a terrifying track record (especially over the last two years) of telling the truth to the American people.

The cat-and-mouse game that Big Food has been playing with consumers for decades has been completely ignored by the FDA and will only end when consumers boycott their products….forever.

This is why I only buy cream from small, independent farms that are truly “farmer owned”…not the semantic façade of a megacorp.

Putting these scammers out of business is the only thing they understand.

References

(1) Milkweed

(2) US Food and Drug Administration. CFR – Code of Federal Regulations Title 21

(3) Cornell Law School FDA Code of Federal Regulations

(Four) Polysorbate 80: A Dangerous Ingredient

(Five) Researcher Bias and the Carrageenan Controversy