How Soya, Nut, Rice, Oat, Hemp and Potato Milk Are Shaping the Future of Dairy Alternatives
For those with lactose intolerance or who prefer a strictly plant-based diet, choosing dairy alternatives is their only alternative to dairy products, apart from complete abstention. In addition, many cutting down on animal products to prioritize plant-based choices also emphasize dairy alternatives, including milk, cheese, yogurt, ice-cream, cream, desserts, and novelty items.
As a result, the global dairy alternatives market is growing, led by the non-dairy milk segment. Almond milk leads with oat milk outperforming the more historical soy.
Why Dairy Alternatives?
Plant-based-alternatives production, for now, demands a heavier price than traditional dairy. However, the perceived benefits, including being protein-rich, low in calories, and 100% natural, are slowly overcoming the cost barrier.
Beyond benefiting animal wellbeing and the planet, dairy alternatives may be helping to control weight, lower cholesterol and blood sugar, improve energy, ease pain, and help prevent heart disease, stroke, and various cancers.
Driven by acceptable and palatable taste profiles, dairy milk alternatives, once an emerging segment, are fast approaching normal basket-item status. In time, the category will become increasingly cost-effective as demand and volumes rise. However, continuing 100% natural offerings and ongoing innovation will invite a broader segment to attract and retain an additional market share.
A Household Favorite is About to Turn Heads
The global pandemic caused producers to focus less on innovation and more on stocking issues. However, the dairy-free market is set to expand portfolios and introduce surprises sooner rather than later. Included will be clean nutritional profiles, probiotics, and prebiotics.
With flavor key and appearance and texture critical, creating appealing dairy alternatives, essentially made of plants and water, can pose challenges. Producing palatable milk from nuts, rice, or especially a starchy vegetable like a potato is a science and an art.
The Art and Science of Plant-Based Milk
The art of identifying the perfect flavor profile combines with the science of revealing and matching authentic flavor molecules.
Understanding the composition of dairy products and experimenting with like elements from plants is how to create the right flavor pairings. Beyond adding aroma and flavor, perhaps even more crucial, is removing or masking ‘off tastes’ with neutralizing agents.
Some products, such as coconut milk, can also include other plants, such as soy or rice. Starchy plant bases like potatoes offer good texture. In addition, natural pectin, gums, and carrageenan can extend shelf life and add mouthfeel for thinner mixtures. Products are often fortified with vitamin and mineral powders.
However, neutralizing and creating nuanced flavors, stabilizing, and fortifying in the healthy, 100% natural, and ethical way demanded by consumers requires pure, certified natural extracts.
Discover EU Certified 100% Natural Molecules
The well-regulated market of extracts and flavorings demands high-quality ingredients and strict adherence to accepted production techniques. You can trust that products labeled ‘natural’ are genuinely pure. Regulations highlight anything else as artificial.
Advanced Biotech offers a substantial and superior selection of EU-certified natural beverage and food flavors to enhance your dairy-alternative innovations. Please contact us for more information.