Filled milk


Filled milk is any milk, cream, or skim milk that has been reconstituted with fats, usually vegetable oils, from sources other than dairy cows. Pure evaporated filled milk is generally considered unsuitable for drinking because of its particular flavor, but is equivalent to unadulterated evaporated milk for baking and cooking purposes. Other filled milk products with substituted fat are used to make ice cream, sour cream, whipping cream, and half-and-half substitutes among other dairy products. Coconut oil filled milk became a popular cost-saving product sold throughout the United States in the early 20th century. Coconut oil could be cheaply imported, primarily from the Philippines, and this product was able to undercut the market for evaporated and condensed milk. At the time, liquid milk was not widely available or very popular in cities because of the rarity of refrigeration and the problems of transportation and storage.

History and importance in American law

In 1923, the United States Congress banned the interstate sale of filled milk "in imitation or semblance of milk, cream, or skimmed milk" via the "Filled Milk Act" of March 4, 1923. Further, the United States Department of Agriculture has broadly refused to consider filled milk products to be "in imitation or semblance of milk" and therefore has declined to see them as within the statute. The Milnot Company, which still exists, in this case was a descendant of the original Carolene Products Company. Currently, filled milk continues to be widely available in supermarkets in the United States as "Milnot", a brand now owned by The J.M. Smucker Company.