Non-Dairy Plant-Based Dairy Offerings Continue to Top


Every year is a great time for new varieties of nuts, seeds, grains, legumes, and now vegetable and plant-based milks to hit store shelves. Now comes the potato milk.

Product made by Swedish company scraped drinks, already sold in the UK and will be heading to the United States later this year. And according to the new report Potato milk, launched by British supermarket chain Waitrose, “will dominate cafe menus in the coming months” – but that seems highly unlikely.

Last August, 40-year-old Sarah Bentley heard about Dug and potato milk. Mrs Bentley, who lives and runs a plant-based cooking school in London, Made in Hackneyimmediately interested.

“I was definitely excited that it was new, but it doesn’t sound naturally appetizing,” she said. “Of course you’re imagining sticky potato juice that’s going to be disgusting.” Ms. Bentley and some of her culinary school colleagues have tried making their own potato milk, with disappointing results. “It wasn’t very tasty, but I’m definitely eager for a rematch as I can see its potential. The more viable alternatives to mass-produced dairy, the better.”

Miss Bentley is not alone in this thought. Over the last decade, interest in the health, environmental, and ethical benefits of a vegetarian or vegan diet has helped milk substitutes proliferate. The aisles of grocery stores and coffee shop counters are now filled with milk made from oats, almonds, cashews, macadamias, hemp seeds, sesame seeds, peas and flax seeds.

You might think we’ve reached the pinnacle of herbal milk, but you’d be wrong.

“I don’t think there is an end to dairy alternative innovation – or at least not anytime soon,” said food and beverage analyst Sydney Olson. mintan international market research firm.

Professor David Julian McClements said plant-based foods are “a really hot topic right now”. University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has been working as a food scientist for more than 20 years, but for the past five years his research has focused entirely on plant-based foods, “because this is one of the main trends for sustainability in the food industry right now. , for ethical and health reasons.”

Denise Purcell, Vice President of Content and Education, said that panic buying and supply chain bottlenecks and irregular shopping habits that started during the pandemic are pushing more people to buy plant-based milk. Special Foods Associationand an in-house expert on trends.

“The shelves were empty and people were stocking up because they knew they would be home and it was an opportunity that they couldn’t get regular dairy products,” Ms Purcell said. “It was kind of like a gateway. They would try and that would lead them to try other products.”

The pandemic has also caused more people to cook at home using both dairy and plant milks. But Ms Olson, a food and beverage analyst, said that as dairy milk sales are expected to return to the pre-pandemic declining trajectory, non-dairy milk will continue to drive interest in plant-based diets.

Plant milk sales in the USA 2.5 billion dollars By the end of 2020, it accounts for 15 percent of all retail dairy sales and 35 percent of the larger market for plant-based foods. By the end of 2026, sales of milk alternatives are projected to account for 30 percent of all milk sales, Olson said. Ms. Purcell said most of this growth will come from small-scale producers.

Plant milks have existed for centuries in cultures around the world. Horchata, a creamy drink made from ground tiger nuts (a type of tuber), originated in North Africa a thousand years ago and became popular in Spain and Latin America. Made from the liquid of grated coconut meat, coconut milk has been used for centuries in South Asia, South America and the Caribbean.

Native Americans, especially in the northeastern United States, used hazelnuts to make nut butter and milk for babies. Almond milk has been a staple in North Africa, Europe and the Middle East for nearly 1000 years. While almond milk was becoming popular in Europe, soy milk use was increasing in China – and by the 1970s and 80s, soy milk could be found in health food stores in Western countries.

Today, many milks are made by soaking, grinding, pressing, or mixing a slurry of nuts, seeds, or vegetables into a slurry, then straining and sometimes mixing with oils or other ingredients that help emulsify it for a creamier texture. The number of blends and variants of non-dairy milk is virtually limitless, as the process produces liquids from a wide variety of plant sources.

While plant-based milks seem like a guarantee healthier alternatives to cow’s milk, some may contain added sugar, are overly processed or lacks the same nutrients as cow’s milk. this dairy industry and Some members of Congress They are pressing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ban plant-based products from being labeled as “dairy.”

Some highly processed plant-based milks also negative impact on the environment. Many of the ingredients used in plant milks are associated with a lower carbon footprint than those in dairy milk.

But many, especially nuts and coconuts, pose their own environmental problems. Almonds are often grown in water-scarce areas, and increasing demand for almonds is depleting the water supply in these communities. Increasing demand for coconuts is leading to increased cultivation and the potential for deforestation and loss of biodiversity.

Ms. Olson said that while almond and oat milk are the most popular plant milks on the market today, blends that combine a variety of nuts, seeds, grains, legumes and more are an emerging innovation. He said the blends are aimed at consumers who aren’t necessarily vegan and may avoid plant milk because of its taste or because they can’t cook with it.

Plant-based milks are less common. in 2015 vegetable In Canada, he introduced a blended milk made from pea protein, cassava root, and potato starch. Vegan food brand since 2016 fluctuation He used pea protein as a base for his milk. also Special Food AssociationAt the trade show in February, new plant milks on display included oat milk with mushrooms, milkshake and even cheese made from carrots.

But for many people, cow’s milk is still the standard of taste, and companies are always changing their products to look more like the dairy products most Americans are used to, said Mr. McClements.

“This is often challenging,” he added, “because obviously plant ingredients are very different from animal ingredients. I definitely think we’ll see improvements in the future. It’s too early.”

Olson said that as innovations fade and familiarity grows, consumers are more critically assessing their plant-based choices. “Expectations are rising and brands cannot afford to rely solely on plant-based claims.”

He said shoppers can expect to see more plant-based milk brands on their labels that address concerns about overprocessing, emphasize minimal and natural ingredients, and focus on benefits like high protein and high vitamin and mineral content.

Ms Bentley, who runs the London culinary school, said she prefers plant milk to cow’s milk for ethical, health and sustainability reasons. She prefers hemp milk due to its low environmental impact, and for her son, she prefers oat milk enriched with B and D vitamins.

“Since I live in a metropolis like London, I don’t need to drink cow’s, goat’s or any other animal’s milk,” he said. “For people who get their food from the industrialized food system, plant milk is the way to go. No question.”

Correction: March 1, 2022

An earlier version of this article misspelled the first name of the owner of the plant-based cooking school Made in Hackney. Sarah Bentley is not Sara.



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