First published August 10, 2017.
Photo: Debbie Waumsley/Pixabay, via IFLScience
No, brown cows do not produce chocolate milk. Every cow, whatever its colour, gives ordinary white milk. Chocolate milk is regular milk mixed with cocoa and a sweetener, usually in a dairy plant. Yet a 2017 survey for the US dairy industry found that 7% of American adults said chocolate milk comes from brown cows. Here is what that survey really measured, why the number spread so fast, and what it does and does not tell us about food knowledge.
Where chocolate milk actually comes from
Chocolate milk starts life as the same milk sold in the plain carton. Producers blend in cocoa powder or chocolate, a sweetener such as sugar, and often a little salt or vanilla. Commercial versions are homogenised, and many contain a tiny amount of carrageenan, a seaweed-based thickener that stops the heavy cocoa particles sinking to the bottom. Homemade chocolate milk settles quickly for exactly that reason, which is why it needs a stir.
The colour of a cow has nothing to do with the colour of its milk. A brown Jersey, a black and white Holstein and a red Ayrshire all produce white milk. Breeds differ in butterfat and protein, which affects richness, but none of them produce a flavoured drink.
The idea of mixing cocoa with milk is centuries old. The Irish physician and collector Hans Sloane is often credited with popularising a milk-based chocolate drink after a stay in Jamaica around 1687, although historians note that people in the Caribbean were already preparing cacao with milk before he arrived.
What the 2017 dairy survey asked and found
The survey was commissioned by the Innovation Center for US Dairy, an industry body that represents dairy farmers and companies, and carried out online in April 2017 by the research firm Edelman Intelligence. It polled just over 1,000 American adults and was released in June, to coincide with National Dairy Month.
Its best known finding was that 7% of respondents said chocolate milk comes only from brown cows. A much larger group, 48%, said they were not sure where chocolate milk comes from.
The survey was mostly a light-hearted look at dairy habits. According to the reporting at the time, it also found that 37% of respondents admitted drinking milk straight from the carton, 29% said they had bought chocolate milk "for the kids" and then drunk it themselves, and 95% said they usually had cheese in the fridge.
Reading the 7% figure carefully
The number made headlines around the world, often with the suggestion that millions of Americans were baffled by dairy. A few points are worth keeping in mind before drawing big conclusions.
- It was a promotional poll. The survey came from a dairy industry group, and the full questionnaire and answer options were never widely published. Without the exact wording, it is hard to know how the question was framed.
- Online surveys attract jokes. Some people choose the silly answer on purpose. Contemporary coverage pointed out that nobody could tell how many respondents were serious.
- "Not sure" is not a belief. The 48% who were unsure did not all think something wrong; many may simply have been cautious, or confused by the phrasing.
- The figure is about the United States. Some versions of the story multiplied the percentage by the world population or by the number of voters. A sample of American adults cannot support a worldwide count.
None of this means the result is meaningless. It is a reminder that a quirky percentage from a small commercial poll is a conversation starter, not a measurement of national intelligence.
Blue cheese gets its colour from mould cultures, not blue cows. Photo: Pexels, via IFLScience
The hamburger statistic, checked
Articles about the chocolate milk poll often added that "20% of adults" in an early 1990s study did not know hamburgers are made from beef. The source behind that claim is a 1993 Pilot Study of Agricultural Literacy from the University of Missouri, funded by the US Department of Agriculture.
The report tells a slightly different story. It tested the statement "Hamburger is made from the meat of pigs". About 80% of respondents correctly marked it false, roughly 12% got it wrong and about 6% said they did not know, so around 18% did not give the right answer. The respondents included high school students as well as adults, and the authors stated plainly that their sample was not representative of all US citizens. It is an interesting pilot result, but it cannot be quoted as a national figure for adults.
Why many people lose touch with where food comes from
Gaps in food knowledge are real, even if individual polls exaggerate them. A 2012 report by the National Institute for Animal Agriculture concluded that most consumers are now at least three generations removed from farming. Most Americans live in cities and suburbs, buy food in packaging, and rarely see crops or livestock up close.
Studies with children show the same pattern. A frequently cited 2011 study at an urban school in California found that more than half of the fourth to sixth graders did not know that pickles are cucumbers or that onions and lettuce are plants, and around four in ten did not know that hamburgers come from cows.
Farm visits, school gardens, cooking at home and simply reading ingredient labels help close that gap. Knowing what goes into a product is also useful for making informed choices, not just for winning a trivia night.
Chocolate milk facts worth knowing
A few practical points sit behind the jokes:
- Sugar: Commercial chocolate milk can contain around twice the sugar of plain low-fat milk, most of it added. That is why some school districts have limited or dropped it.
- Nutrients: The milk itself still supplies protein, calcium and other nutrients found in plain milk.
- Sports drinks: Several small studies from 2009 to 2011 found chocolate milk worked about as well as commercial recovery drinks after exercise, which is why it is popular with some athletes. Those were limited studies, not a reason to drink more of it.
Anyone with questions about sugar, dairy or diet for themselves or their children should talk to a doctor or a registered dietitian.
So the next time someone jokes about brown cows, the answer is easy: all cows give white milk, the chocolate is added later, and the famous 7% says more about online polls than about cows.
Sources: FOX 2 Detroit, 16 June 2017: 7% of Americans think chocolate milk comes from brown cows; NBC New York: survey details and agricultural literacy studies; Birkenholz et al., Pilot Study of Agricultural Literacy, University of Missouri, 1993 (ERIC); Wikipedia: Chocolate milk. Original story reported by Food & Wine and IFLScience; photos via IFLScience (Debbie Waumsley/Pixabay; Pexels).
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