Soy milk, Almond milk, oat milk, rice milk, etc. are the things that are in trend nowadays. All of these are dairy alternatives and attracting a large group of consumers worldwide but why do we need dairy alternatives? If India is the world’s largest producer of milk, why is there a drive for dairy alternatives? Are these alternatives capable of providing the same nutrients as dairy products? Is there any scientific research behind this?
Well, plant-based dairy products are the water extracted plant materials, giving a liquid product with some creamy mouthfeel as cattle milk. Such products don’t taste like milk but have better nutrient properties, lactose-free, cholesterol-free, and involve no animal cruelty. There are various dairy alternatives already available in the market. Many new start-ups are also coming up with more options such as coconut milk, almond milk, rice milk, etc. and doing great in the market.
How this plant base milk is made? What are its nutrient properties? What about anti-nutritional factors that are present in plant ingredients?
Well, the basic idea behind the plant-based milk is extracting the solid material and processing it for palatability. Especially for the soy milk, soybean is soaked in water overnight and then ground with little water poured on it. Generally, 10 times more water is added to the resultant mash, filtered and boiled for 30-60 minutes. The resulting liquid is soy milk (1). Further flavors, colors, and other food additives are added to provide its commercial palatability.
For coconut milk, mature coconuts are first shelled followed by cutting and grinding. The grated coconut is then pressed in an expeller to extract the coconut milk from it. To increase the yield, the residual kernels are mixed with water and expelled again to recover the maximum of the coconut milk. Once the milk is extracted, it is passed through filters (ultra-filtration or RO) for removal of any impurities or contaminants. Further, the fat content is adjusted in the milk as per requirement and then, pasteurized to make it microbiologically safe (2). Furthermore, various food additives are added such as preservatives to prevent spoilage, emulsifiers & stabilizers to prevent the separation of fat from water and bleaching agents to remove any color which may come during processing.
Considering the nutritional properties of these alternatives given in the figure (5),
cereal and legumes based milk has high protein content compared to cow’s milk, has a good amount of magnesium, iron, Phosphorous, low concentration of sodium and zero cholesterol. Moreover, these alternatives contain fibers that are good for maintaining digestibility and are absent in cow’s milk. For the people who are lactose intolerant, plant-based dairy is the best alternative for them to fulfill their nutrient requirements without having any allergy.
But there are some disadvantages also associated with plant-based dairy. They contain anti-nutritional factors that hamper in nutrient absorption and have the potential to cause ill-effects in some cases. According to various researches carried out, soaking of soybeans at 55-60ᵒC reduces the activity of lipoxygenase enzyme, blanching at 80ᵒC for 10 minutes and hot grinding of beans reduces urease activity, phytate activity up-to 80% and deactivate trypsin inhibitor (3). Another disadvantage is the beany taste in the product that is not liked by many of the people and need to be masked. The reason behind the beany taste is the enzymatic reactions when beans are grounded and exposed to moisture. In some of the modern methods developed by Cornell University, USDA, and the University of Illinois, the enzymes are deactivated before other processing steps by using alkali soaking, blanching, or high heat treatment, and results in a decrease in beany flavor in the end product (1).
Recently various plant-based dairy alternatives have been launched in the Indian market. The Hershey’s Company has launched its soy milk under the brand name Sofit in a variety of flavors. Raw Pressery and So Good has launched its almond milk. Coconut milk of Dabur is prevalent in the market whereas Nestle has also launched their coconut milk powder for consumers. Recently, Epigamia has also entered in this field with their coconut milk yogurt. Urban Platter, with a motive of promoting a plant-based diet, has joined the market with rice milk powder, soy milk, oat milk, and almond milk through their online delivery platform.
It is clear that plant-based dairy has captured a huge market share in recent years. According to the report published by GFI, the plant-based milk category is worth $2 billion and has alone accounts for 40% of the total plant-based food market. It has been seen that sales of plant-based dairy has grown 14% over the past two years (4).
Although plant-based dairy is a good alternative for many people, it is not suitable for those who are allergic to nuts, cereals, and legumes. Moreover, protein bioavailability is one of the limiting factors in the promotion of plant-based dairy. For widening the scope of this sector, there is a need to invest more, develop new technologies to increase protein bioavailability, and explore alternative ingredients that are not allergic to anyone.
References:
1. T Odo, Iwate University, Japan (2003). Soy Milk, Elsevier Science ltd.
2. Coconut hand book by Tetrapak
3. Humyra Nowshin, Kumkum Devnath, Anjuman Ara Begum and Md. Anisur Rahman Mazumder (2018). Effect of soaking and grinding conditions on anti-nutrient and nutrient content of soy milk.
4. Plant Based Market Overview: The Good Food Institute.
5. Image Courtesy: Sai Kranthi Vanga and Vijaya Raghavan (2017). How well do plant based alternatives fare nutritionally compared to cow’s milk? J Food Sci Technol. 2018 Jan. doi: 10.1007/s13197-017-2915-y
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