Dairy Science & Technology · Dairy Processing & Product Technology · also Imitation Dairy Products, Composite Dairy Foods
Filled and imitation dairy products, plant-based milks and cheeses, hybrid products, and how they compare with dairy in nutrition, function and labelling.
In the exams: ICAR AICE subject 35a Unit 2 (dairy analogues based on plant milk) and Unit 3 (composite dairy foods)
Dairy products have always had imitators and partners. Blends of skimmed milk with vegetable fat have been traded for a century; whiteners based on vegetable fat replace cream in coffee in much of the world; soy drinks have been made in East Asia for many centuries; and dairy has long been combined with cereals, fruits and vegetables in puddings, porridges, fermented cereal–milk foods and fruit yoghurts. Since the 2010s, plant-based drinks, yoghurts and cheeses have grown into a significant category in many markets, hybrid products mix dairy and plant ingredients, and milk proteins made by precision fermentation without cows have entered the food supply. A dairy technologist needs to understand all of these, because dairy companies make them, compete with them, use their ingredients and answer questions about them.
This manual covers the technology, nutrition, regulation and market of dairy analogues and composite dairy foods. It begins with filled and imitation milks, then plant-based milks made from soy, oats, almonds, rice and peas, and plant-based yoghurts and cheese analogues. It treats hybrid dairy–plant products, precision-fermentation dairy proteins, and composite foods that combine dairy with cereals, fruits and vegetables. It then compares the nutrition of these products with that of milk and explains how they are fortified, sets out the international and national rules on the use of dairy terms, and ends with consumer trends and the market.
Doctoral fellowship examinations in food processing technology and dairy technology include dairy analogues based on plant milk and composite dairy foods; licensing and food-safety examinations ask about the labelling of such products. Questions cover processing steps and their purposes, the causes of defects, nutritional differences, fortification and the conditions under which dairy terms may be used.
A filled milk is a product in which milk fat has been replaced, wholly or partly, by fat from another source, usually vegetable oil, while the non-fat solids come from milk. An imitation milk, by contrast, is designed to resemble milk but contains few or no milk components, or only isolated milk constituents such as caseinate. A recombined milk, which is often confused with both, is made from milk powder, anhydrous milk fat and water, and contains only milk constituents; a reconstituted milk is milk powder dissolved in water.
Blends of skimmed milk and vegetable fat appeared in the early twentieth century, when cheap vegetable oils and surplus skim milk made them attractive, and they provoked early regulatory battles in several countries over whether consumers were being misled. Today their main form is fat-filled milk powder, a spray-dried blend of skim milk and vegetable fat, usually palm or coconut oil, which is a major traded dairy commodity, imported particularly into countries of West Africa, South-East Asia and the Middle East where it is cheaper than whole milk powder and does not need refrigeration. Codex Alimentarius has standards for blends of skimmed milk and vegetable fat in powdered form, as evaporated products and as sweetened condensed products; they set minimum contents of milk protein and total fat and require that the name make clear the presence of vegetable fat.
Filled products are cheaper than whole-milk equivalents because vegetable fats cost less than milk fat, and they can be formulated with a lower saturated fat content when liquid oils are used, although palm and coconut fats are themselves highly saturated.
Making a filled milk is essentially an emulsion process. Skim milk, or skim milk powder reconstituted in water, is the continuous phase. The vegetable fat is melted, often with an oil-soluble emulsifier such as mono- and diglycerides, and added to the warm skim milk under vigorous mixing to form a coarse pre-emulsion. Homogenisation, commonly in two stages at total pressures in the range of 15 to 25 MPa depending on the product, then breaks the fat into droplets of about one micrometre. Milk proteins, chiefly caseins with some whey proteins, adsorb to the new droplet surfaces and stabilise them against creaming and coalescence, just as in homogenised whole milk.
For liquid products the emulsion is heat-treated by pasteurisation, UHT treatment or in-container sterilisation, and packed. For powders, the emulsion is concentrated by evaporation and spray-dried; the fat must be well emulsified before drying, or free fat on the powder surface oxidises and makes the powder greasy and poorly wettable. Fat-filled powders are often agglomerated and lecithinated to improve reconstitution in water, and packed under nitrogen or in low-oxygen packs to slow oxidation.
The choice of fat affects flavour, oxidative stability and nutrition. Palm and coconut fats are stable against oxidation but highly saturated; liquid oils such as soybean or sunflower oil are less saturated but oxidise readily, giving painty and fishy off-flavours unless protected by antioxidants and low-oxygen packaging. Fat-soluble vitamins A and D, which vegetable fats lack, are usually added.
Imitation milks and creams are built from non-milk fat, carbohydrate and protein. The most important commercial example is the coffee whitener, or creamer, sold as powder or liquid. A typical powdered whitener contains vegetable fat, often hydrogenated or fractionated palm kernel or coconut fat, glucose syrup solids as the carrier, a protein such as sodium caseinate to emulsify the fat and give whitening power, emulsifiers, and buffer salts such as dipotassium phosphate. The mixture is emulsified, homogenised and spray-dried.
The buffer salt solves a specific problem. Hot coffee is acidic and may contain calcium from hard water; when cold whitener is added, its protein can aggregate into visible white flecks, a defect called feathering. Phosphate and citrate salts raise the pH locally and bind calcium, keeping the protein dispersed. Whitening power depends on fat droplet size and number, because the white colour comes from light scattering by droplets of about the wavelength of light.
Sodium caseinate is derived from milk, so a whitener containing it is not free of milk protein even though some markets have allowed such products to be called non-dairy. People with cow's milk protein allergy must avoid them, and allergen labelling requires that milk be declared. Fully milk-free whiteners use plant proteins such as pea or soy, or rely on emulsifiers alone. Imitation milks based on vegetable fat, sugar, plant or milk protein and added micronutrients have been made for regions with milk shortages and for vending; their nutritional value depends entirely on formulation and fortification.
Plant-based milks, called plant-based drinks or beverages in jurisdictions that reserve the word milk, are aqueous extracts or dispersions of legumes, cereals, nuts or seeds, formulated to resemble milk in appearance and use. Traditional examples include soy milk in East Asia, coconut milk in South and South-East Asia for cooking, almond milk in medieval European and Middle Eastern cookery, and horchata made from tiger nuts or rice in Spain and Latin America.
Modern manufacture follows a common sequence. The raw material is cleaned and often soaked to soften it. It is then wet-milled with water to release protein, fat and starch, sometimes at high temperature to inactivate enzymes. The slurry is separated, by decanter centrifuges, filters or screens, into the extract and an insoluble residue, called okara in soy processing, which is used as feed or a food ingredient. Some processes use flours or protein isolates dispersed in water instead of whole raw materials.
The base is then formulated. Vegetable oil may be added for creaminess, often sunflower or rapeseed oil; sugar or other sweeteners; salt; flavours; hydrocolloids such as gellan gum or carrageenan to keep insoluble particles, including added calcium salts, in suspension; emulsifiers such as lecithin; and vitamins and minerals. The formulated drink is homogenised to reduce particle and droplet size, heat-treated, usually by UHT for long shelf life or by pasteurisation for chilled products, and filled aseptically or cleanly. Because these drinks contain no casein micelles, their colloidal stability depends on particle size, density differences, viscosity and added stabilisers, as described by Stokes' law for sedimentation and creaming.
Soy drink has the longest history and the composition closest to cow milk in protein: about 3 to 3.5 g per 100 mL in typical products, with a protein of reasonably high quality. Its main technical problem is flavour. Soybeans contain lipoxygenase enzymes that, when beans are ground cold in water, oxidise polyunsaturated fatty acids into compounds such as hexanal that give a grassy, beany flavour. Modern processes prevent this by grinding the beans in hot water above about 80 °C, by blanching or steaming them before grinding, or by using lipoxygenase-free soybean varieties. Soybeans also contain trypsin inhibitors, which reduce protein digestibility and are inactivated by sufficient heating, and the oligosaccharides raffinose and stachyose, which are fermented in the colon and cause flatulence in some consumers. Soy is a major allergen that must be declared.
Pea protein drinks are made from pea protein isolates or concentrates, produced by wet or dry fractionation of yellow peas, dispersed in water with oil, sugar, minerals and stabilisers. They give protein contents of about 2 to 3 g per 100 mL, avoid the allergens soy and nuts, and have a neutral colour, but pea protein can bring earthy, beany or bitter notes that must be masked, and its solubility and heat stability are often lower than those of milk proteins. Faba bean, chickpea and lupin proteins are used in similar ways. Legume proteins are generally limited by the sulfur amino acids methionine and cysteine, though less severely than cereals are limited by lysine.
Oat drinks are made by milling oats with water and treating the slurry with enzymes. Amylases break down the starch, which would otherwise gelatinise on heating into a thick paste, into dextrins, maltose and glucose; this lowers viscosity and gives a natural sweetness without added sugar, though the sugars produced are classed by some authorities as free sugars. Some processes also use β-glucanase or protein-deamidating enzymes to adjust texture and stability. Oat drinks contain about 1 g of protein per 100 mL, some of the soluble fibre β-glucan, and added oil for creaminess; they have a mild, cereal flavour and foam well, which has made them popular in coffee.
Almond drinks are made by grinding blanched almonds, or almond paste, with water and filtering. Typical products contain only 2 to 6% almond, so protein is low, often about 0.5 g per 100 mL, and unsweetened versions are very low in energy. Similar drinks are made from cashew, hazelnut, macadamia and other nuts; all carry nut allergen labelling.
Rice drinks are made from enzymatically hydrolysed rice; they are sweet and high in carbohydrate but very low in protein, about 0.1 to 0.3 g per 100 mL. Because rice accumulates inorganic arsenic from paddy soils, some food safety agencies advise that rice drinks not be given to young children as a substitute for milk. Coconut drinks, distinct from the thick coconut milk used in cooking, are diluted coconut cream, mostly water and saturated fat with very little protein. Hemp, flax, sesame, quinoa and potato-based drinks are smaller niches.
Plant-based yoghurt alternatives are made by fermenting a plant base, such as soy, coconut, oat, almond, cashew or pea, with cultures similar to those used for dairy yoghurt, commonly Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus, sometimes with probiotic strains. Two problems must be solved that milk solves naturally: food for the bacteria and structure.
Dairy yoghurt bacteria ferment lactose, which plant bases lack. Soy drink contains sucrose, raffinose and stachyose, which some strains can use; other bases need added sugar, such as sucrose or glucose, or enzymatically produced maltose and glucose, as in oat bases. Strains are selected for their ability to acidify the particular base to a pH of about 4.5 and to produce acceptable flavour; the characteristic acetaldehyde of dairy yoghurt is produced less in some plant bases, and off-flavours of the raw material may be emphasised or masked by fermentation.
Structure in dairy yoghurt comes from the acid gel of casein. Soy proteins also form acid gels when acidified after heating, so soy yoghurts can set with little added thickener. Most other bases have too little protein to gel and rely on starches, often modified tapioca, maize or potato starch, pectin, agar, locust bean gum or guar gum, sometimes with added pea or faba protein. Coconut-based yoghurts are rich in saturated fat and low in protein; their thickness comes almost entirely from starch and gums. Defects include syneresis, grainy or slimy textures, chalkiness from calcium salts, and weak or excessive acidity, and products need the same hygiene and cold chain as dairy yoghurts.
The first large-scale cheese analogues were not plant-based. Imitation cheese, developed from the 1970s for pizza and processed foods, is made by heating rennet casein, a milk protein, with vegetable fat, water and emulsifying salts such as sodium phosphates and citrates, in the same kind of cooker used for processed cheese. The emulsifying salts sequester calcium from the casein, making it hydrated and able to emulsify the fat; on cooling, the mass sets into a block that can be shredded and that melts and stretches somewhat like mozzarella. Starches may replace part of the casein to reduce cost. Such products contain milk protein and are labelled as analogues or imitation cheese where the rules require it.
The ability of cheese to melt, flow and stretch comes from the casein network: in heated mozzarella, calcium-bridged casein strands align and stretch. Most plant proteins form different structures, globular proteins that gel irreversibly on heating and do not flow or stretch in the same way. Reproducing these functional properties without casein is the central technical challenge of plant-based cheese.
Plant-based cheese alternatives fall into two broad types. The first, the largest by volume in many markets, is made from coconut oil or other solid vegetable fats with modified starches, mainly from potato and tapioca, plus salt, flavours, colours and sometimes a little plant protein. Heated and mixed, the starch gelatinises and binds the fat; on cooling, the mass sets into blocks or slices. The fat melts on heating, and specially modified starches give some flow and stretch, but these products typically contain little or no protein, and their saturated fat content is high.
The second type is cultured nut and seed cheese, made from cashews, almonds, macadamias or sunflower seeds soaked, blended and fermented with lactic cultures, sometimes ripened with moulds such as Penicillium camemberti for white-rind styles. These products resemble soft cheeses more than hard or melting cheeses, and contain more protein than starch-based types but are expensive.
Tofu, the curd made by coagulating heated soy drink with calcium sulfate, magnesium chloride or glucono-δ-lactone, is the oldest plant-based curd and is closely analogous to fresh cheese making: a coagulant destabilises the protein dispersion, the curd is pressed, and whey-like liquid is removed. Fermented tofu products ripened with moulds are traditional in East Asia. Research on plant-based cheese focuses on protein modification by enzymes, heat and pH, on fermentation to develop flavour, and on adding casein produced by precision fermentation to give true cheese functionality without animals.
Hybrid products combine dairy and plant ingredients in one food. Examples include drinks that blend cow milk with oat or other plant bases; yoghurts in which part of the milk protein is replaced by pea or faba protein; cheeses and cheese-like products in which part of the milk fat is replaced by vegetable fat or part of the casein by plant protein; butter blends of milk fat with vegetable oils, long familiar as spreadable blends; ice creams and frozen desserts made with vegetable fat and milk solids; and processed foods such as sauces and ready meals that use both.
The reasons are varied. Cost is the oldest: vegetable fats and some plant proteins are cheaper than milk fat and milk protein. Function is another: blends of butter and liquid oil spread straight from the refrigerator, and plant fibres can add texture. Nutrition is a third: replacing part of the milk fat with unsaturated oils lowers saturated fat, and adding plant ingredients can add fibre. More recently, companies make hybrids for environmental reasons, since replacing part of the milk reduces the greenhouse gas emissions and land use per unit of product roughly in proportion, and to appeal to flexitarian consumers who want to eat less animal food without giving up dairy taste and texture. Hybrids keep many of the sensory and nutritional strengths of dairy, such as the protein quality and calcium of milk, while using plant ingredients where they work well.
Combining dairy and plant ingredients raises technical problems. Milk proteins and plant proteins interact during heating and acidification: in a blended yoghurt, plant proteins may weaken the casein gel, cause syneresis, or give a grainy texture, depending on their solubility, particle size and denaturation state. Calcium in milk can destabilise some plant protein dispersions, and some plant ingredients bind calcium. Heat stability of blends in UHT processing must be tested, because sediment and gelation may appear during storage.
Flavour is often the biggest challenge. Pea, faba and other legume proteins can carry beany or bitter notes that dairy consumers notice in otherwise familiar products, so blends often use highly refined proteins, flavour masking or fermentation. Colour may also change. Starter cultures may grow differently in blends, changing acidification time and flavour.
Processing must also respect allergen and labelling consequences. A hybrid yoghurt containing soy or nut ingredients carries those allergens in addition to milk, and the plant ingredients bring their own microbial hazards, such as spores in plant protein powders. Equipment shared between dairy, hybrid and plant products requires allergen control in cleaning and scheduling.
Hybrids sit awkwardly in rules written for pure dairy products. Under the Codex General Standard for the Use of Dairy Terms, a composite milk product, one in which milk or milk constituents are an essential part in terms of quantity in the final product and non-milk constituents are not intended to replace any milk constituent, may use a dairy term in its name, such as a fruit yoghurt. A product in which plant ingredients replace part of the milk protein or fat is in a different position, because a milk constituent has been replaced; whether it may be called yoghurt, cheese or milk depends on the product standard and national law, and in many jurisdictions it may not.
Product standards set limits that hybrids must respect. Codex standards for cheese, for example, are based on milk and milk products, and some national standards allow only specified non-dairy ingredients in limited amounts. Spreadable blends of butter and vegetable oils have their own standards and names in many countries, which distinguish them from butter. Manufacturers therefore name hybrids with descriptive terms, such as a dairy and oat drink or a blend of milk and plant protein, and state the proportions.
Consumers may also find hybrids hard to understand. Clear labelling of the proportion of dairy and plant ingredients, and honest claims about environmental benefits that state the basis of comparison, help avoid accusations of misleading marketing, a growing focus of consumer protection authorities in several regions.
Precision fermentation uses micro-organisms engineered to produce a specific molecule, here a milk protein, which is then separated from the micro-organism and purified. The gene for a bovine milk protein, such as β-lactoglobulin, α-lactalbumin or a casein, is inserted into a production host, commonly a filamentous fungus such as Trichoderma reesei or Aspergillus, a yeast such as Komagataella (formerly Pichia) phaffii, or a bacterium. The host is grown in large fermenters on sugar and nutrients, secretes the protein into the broth, and the protein is recovered by separation of the cells, filtration, purification and drying. The resulting protein has the same amino acid sequence as the cow's protein, although its post-translational modifications may differ.
The approach is not new to dairying. Chymosin produced by fermentation with genetically engineered micro-organisms was approved for cheesemaking in the United States in 1990 and soon in many other countries, and it now coagulates most of the world's cheese. Lactase, other enzymes and some vitamins are made in similar ways. What is new is using the method to make bulk food proteins.
Precision fermentation differs from biomass fermentation, in which the whole micro-organism is the product, as in mycoprotein from filamentous fungi, and from cellular agriculture, in which mammary cells are grown in culture to secrete milk components. All three are sometimes called animal-free dairy, a term that regulators in some jurisdictions restrict.
β-Lactoglobulin, the main whey protein of cow milk, was the first precision-fermentation milk protein to reach the market, in ice creams, cream cheese alternatives, drinks and protein powders sold from about 2020 in the United States and then in several other countries after regulatory assessment. Whey proteins are relatively easy to produce because they are globular, soluble and do not need extensive modification: a correctly folded recombinant β-lactoglobulin behaves much like the native protein, providing foaming, gelling, emulsifying and nutritional properties similar to those of whey protein isolate.
Caseins are harder. In milk, caseins are phosphorylated on many serine residues by a kinase in the mammary Golgi apparatus, and κ-casein is glycosylated. Phosphoserine clusters bind calcium phosphate and are essential for the assembly of casein micelles, the structures that give milk its colloidal behaviour and cheese its melt and stretch. Most microbial hosts do not phosphorylate caseins in the same way, so producers either co-express kinases, phosphorylate the proteins after production, or work with non-phosphorylated caseins and assemble micelle-like particles with added calcium phosphate. Research and early products aim to make cheese with true casein functionality from these proteins combined with plant fats.
For the dairy technologist, recombinant milk proteins are ingredients that behave like their dairy counterparts in many respects, and can be processed with familiar equipment, but whose purity, residual host-cell components and functional differences must be specified and tested.
New proteins made by precision fermentation are assessed before sale under novel food, food additive or generally-recognised-as-safe procedures, depending on the jurisdiction. Assessments examine the identity and purity of the protein, the safety of the production organism and its residues, the absence of viable production organisms and, where relevant, of their DNA, nutritional value, and allergenicity. Approval has been granted in some countries and is pending in others, and labelling rules for such products differ, including whether dairy terms or phrases such as animal-free may be used.
Because recombinant β-lactoglobulin and casein have the same amino acid sequences as cow milk proteins, they are expected to be allergenic for people with cow's milk protein allergy. Products made with them must declare milk allergens, even though they contain no ingredient from a cow and no lactose. They are therefore suitable for lactose-intolerant consumers, for some vegans by choice, and for markets seeking dairy functionality without animals, but not for people with milk allergy.
Claims of environmental benefit rest on life-cycle assessments that compare the land, water and greenhouse gas emissions of fermentation with those of dairy farming. Fermentation needs little land directly but uses sugar from crops and substantial energy for sterilisation, aeration, cooling and downstream processing; its footprint therefore depends heavily on the energy source. Published assessments are few, often commissioned by producers, and should be read with attention to their system boundaries and assumptions. Cost and scale remain the main barriers: producing proteins at prices close to those of whey and casein requires very large fermenters and high yields.
Combining milk with cereals is one of the oldest ways of making nutritious, storable food. Milk and rice or other grains are cooked together into puddings across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, such as rice pudding and its many regional forms. Fermented milk is mixed with cereal flour or cracked wheat and dried into storable foods: kishk in the Levant and tarhana in Turkey, Greece and the Balkans are made from yoghurt and wheat, fermented, dried and later reconstituted as soup. In West Africa, millet balls are mixed with fermented milk in drinks such as fura da nono. Porridges and gruels cooked in milk, malted milk drinks, breakfast cereals eaten with milk, and yoghurts with muesli or granola extend the family.
The combination is nutritionally complementary. Milk proteins, rich in lysine, compensate for the lysine deficiency of cereal proteins, and cereals add energy and, if whole, fibre. For young children, milk-and-cereal complementary foods are an important source of energy and protein, and fortified cereal–milk blends are used in food assistance.
Technologically, cereals bring starch, which gelatinises on heating and thickens the product, and enzymes such as amylases, which may thin a pudding during storage if not inactivated. Cereal ingredients often carry spores of Bacillus cereus and other spore-formers, so heat treatment and cooling must account for them; dried fermented cereal–milk foods are preserved by low pH and low water activity. Gluten-containing cereals must be declared as allergens, and products with added inclusions, such as granola in a yoghurt cup, are kept separate until eating so that the cereal stays crisp.
Fruit is the commonest non-dairy ingredient in dairy products: fruit yoghurts, fruit-flavoured milks, smoothies, fruit cheeses and desserts, and fruit ice creams. In yoghurt, fruit is usually added as a fruit preparation, a mixture of fruit pieces or purée with sugar, pectin or starch and flavours, cooked or heat-treated and packed aseptically. It is either mixed into stirred yoghurt, typically at 10 to 20% of the product, or placed at the bottom of the cup for set or layered styles.
Fruit preparations must be microbiologically stable, because fruits carry yeasts and moulds that spoil yoghurts, and heat-resistant moulds such as Byssochlamys can survive mild treatments. Preparations are heat-treated sufficiently, filled aseptically into sterile containers, and dosed into yoghurt through hygienic equipment. Their pH, sugar content and viscosity are matched to the yoghurt, so that the fruit neither sinks nor floats, neither bleeds colour nor draws water out of the yoghurt gel.
Fruit chemistry interacts with milk. Fruit acids lower pH and can curdle milk in drinks, which is why fruit-flavoured milks are often stabilised with pectin, which coats casein at acid pH, or made with fermented milk. Anthocyanin pigments of berries change colour with pH and can turn bluish or grey at the pH of milk. Some fruits contain proteolytic enzymes, bromelain in pineapple, actinidin in kiwifruit, papain in papaya and ficin in figs, which hydrolyse milk proteins, causing bitterness and liquefaction of gels and jellies unless the fruit is heated to inactivate the enzymes before it meets milk. Codex standards for fermented milks permit flavoured products containing non-dairy ingredients, generally up to 50% of the product by mass.
Vegetables combine with dairy in many cuisines. Yoghurt with cucumber and herbs makes tzatziki in the eastern Mediterranean and raita in South Asia; milk-based desserts are made with carrots, pumpkins or beans; cheeses are flavoured with herbs, peppers, olives and vegetables; and dairy-based soups, sauces and dips use vegetables widely. Some newer products add vegetable purées to yoghurt or cheese to raise vegetable intake or fibre.
These combinations bring hazards and quality issues that pure dairy products do not. Vegetables and herbs carry soil-borne bacteria, including spore-formers, Listeria monocytogenes and pathogenic Escherichia coli, so they must be washed, blanched or otherwise treated and added under conditions that do not recontaminate the product. Low-acid vegetable–dairy mixtures can support the growth of Clostridium botulinum if packed anaerobically without adequate control of temperature, pH or water activity, which matters for chilled dips and sauces. Herbs and spices may carry high spore loads unless treated.
Vegetable enzymes and pigments must also be managed: peroxidases and polyphenol oxidases cause browning and off-flavours unless blanched; chlorophyll turns olive-brown in acid; and some vegetables release water, causing syneresis. Shelf life of composite foods is usually limited by the most perishable ingredient. Composite dairy foods are therefore designed by combining the hurdles of each component, pH, water activity, heat treatment, preservatives where permitted, and chilling, so that the whole product is safe. The same principles apply to nuts, seeds, chocolate and confectionery inclusions, which bring allergens and, in some cases, water-activity differences that must be balanced.
Plant-based drinks differ from cow milk, and from one another, far more than their similar appearance suggests. Per 100 mL, whole cow milk typically provides about 64 kcal, 3.3 g protein, 3.6 g fat, 4.8 g lactose and 120 mg calcium, with iodine, riboflavin and vitamin B12. Typical unsweetened plant drinks provide, per 100 mL: soy, about 35 to 45 kcal and 3 to 3.5 g protein; pea, about 2 to 3 g protein; oat, about 40 to 50 kcal, 1 g protein and 6 to 7 g carbohydrate, much of it sugars from starch hydrolysis; almond, as little as 13 to 25 kcal and about 0.5 g protein; rice, about 50 kcal, almost all carbohydrate, and very little protein; coconut, about 20 to 30 kcal from mostly saturated fat and almost no protein. Sweetened versions add sugar. These ranges are approximate; composition varies widely between brands and countries, and labels must be read.
Protein quality also differs. Soy protein has a high digestible indispensable amino acid score, though lower than that of milk protein; pea protein is moderate, limited by sulfur amino acids; and oat, rice and almond proteins, besides being present in tiny amounts, are limited by lysine. A child who replaces milk with almond or rice drink without changing the rest of the diet can therefore lose most of the protein that milk supplied.
Plant drinks contain no cholesterol and generally less saturated fat than whole milk, except coconut drinks; some contain fibre or β-glucan. They also contain compounds absent from milk, including phytate and other antinutrients, and soy drinks contain isoflavones, whose health effects are debated.
Without fortification, plant drinks are poor sources of calcium, vitamin B12, vitamin D, riboflavin and iodine, nutrients for which milk is a major source in many diets. Most mainstream plant drinks sold in high-income markets are therefore fortified, typically with calcium to about 120 mg per 100 mL, matching cow milk, and with vitamins D, B12 and B2; iodine is added less often. Organic certification rules in some jurisdictions restrict or prohibit adding vitamins and minerals, so organic plant drinks are frequently unfortified, a difference consumers may not notice.
Calcium is added as calcium carbonate, tricalcium phosphate or calcium citrate. Calcium carbonate is cheap and dense, and its absorption in studies is similar to that of milk calcium when it is consumed, but its particles tend to sediment in the pack. If the drink is not shaken, much of the calcium stays at the bottom of the carton, so the calcium actually consumed may be well below the declared value. Hydrocolloids such as gellan gum are used to suspend the particles, and micronised salts sediment more slowly. Soluble calcium salts can destabilise plant proteins on heating, causing aggregation and sediment, so formulation must balance stability and nutrition. Phytate and oxalate in some plant ingredients reduce calcium absorption.
Vitamins B12 and D are added as cyanocobalamin and as vitamin D2 or D3 (D3 from lichen for products sold as vegan), and losses during heat treatment and storage are allowed for by overages. Riboflavin is light-sensitive, so packaging matters as it does for milk.
The nutritional differences matter most for young children, pregnant women, older people and people with restricted diets. Plant-based drinks are not substitutes for breast milk or infant formula, and their use as the main drink for infants has been linked in case reports with severe malnutrition, rickets and kwashiorkor. Infant formulas based on soy protein or hydrolysed rice protein are a different category, made to infant formula standards.
For young children over one year, paediatric and dietetic bodies in several countries advise that if cow milk is not used, an unsweetened, fortified soy drink is the most suitable plant-based alternative because of its protein content, and that drinks such as rice, almond and oat drinks are less suitable as a main drink unless the rest of the diet supplies the missing protein and energy; some agencies specifically advise against rice drinks for young children because of arsenic. Children on vegan diets need planned sources of vitamin B12, calcium, vitamin D, iodine, iron, zinc and omega-3 fatty acids.
For adults, a fortified plant drink can supply calcium and some vitamins comparable with milk but generally less protein and iodine. People who switch from dairy to unfortified or organic plant drinks may lower their calcium, iodine and B12 intakes without realising it; iodine is a particular concern in pregnancy in countries where milk is the main iodine source. The dairy technologist's role is to design products with honest, adequate fortification and clear labels, and to provide accurate information on how they compare with milk.
The Codex General Standard for the Use of Dairy Terms sets the international principles for naming milk products and products that resemble them. It defines milk as the normal mammary secretion of milking animals obtained from one or more milkings without addition to it or extraction from it, intended for consumption as liquid milk or for further processing. A milk product is a product obtained by any processing of milk, which may contain food additives and other ingredients functionally necessary for the processing. A composite milk product is one in which milk, milk products or milk constituents are an essential part in terms of quantity in the final product, provided that the constituents not derived from milk are not intended to take the place, in part or in whole, of any milk constituent.
Dairy terms, the names and descriptions reserved for these products, such as milk, cream, butter, cheese, yoghurt, whey and the names of varieties covered by Codex standards, may be used only for milk, milk products and composite milk products that meet the relevant standards. The standard states that dairy terms shall not be used for products in which milk or milk products have been replaced by non-milk constituents, and that the labelling of such products must not mislead consumers about their nature. It allows an exception for names whose exact nature is clear from traditional usage, or when the name is clearly used to describe a characteristic quality of the non-milk product; coconut milk and peanut butter are commonly cited examples.
National and regional rules build on these principles but differ in how strictly they apply them to plant-based products.
Some jurisdictions reserve dairy terms strictly. In the European Union, the common market organisation regulation reserves the designations milk, cream, butter, cheese, yoghurt and others for milk products, and the Court of Justice confirmed in 2017 that these terms cannot be used for purely plant-based products even with a qualifier such as soy or tofu, except for listed traditional names such as coconut milk and certain names in particular languages. Products are therefore sold as oat drink, soy alternative to yoghurt or plant-based alternative to cheese. Several other countries apply similar restrictions, and some have debated or adopted restrictions on terms such as burger or steak for plant products.
Other jurisdictions are more permissive. In the United States, the food regulator issued draft guidance in 2023 indicating that names such as soy milk and almond milk, with the plant source stated, are generally understood by consumers, and recommending voluntary statements comparing key nutrients with cow milk. Some countries allow dairy terms with a clear plant qualifier, others prohibit them, and in several the question remains under discussion or in the courts. Labels for export must therefore be checked market by market.
Related terms also have defined meanings in many places. Dairy-free, milk-free and vegan claims require the absence of milk ingredients, and in some markets an assessment of cross-contact; non-dairy has historically been allowed in some markets for products containing caseinate, which can mislead people with milk allergy. Imitation and analogue may be required for products resembling a standardised food but not meeting it. Lactose-free relates only to lactose and does not mean dairy-free.
Beyond the name, analogues and composite products must meet general labelling rules: a list of ingredients in descending order of weight, quantitative declaration of characterising ingredients in some jurisdictions, nutrition declaration, date marking, storage instructions and the name and address of the business. Allergen declaration is critical: soy, tree nuts, peanuts, gluten-containing cereals, sesame and milk itself, including caseinate, whey and recombinant milk proteins, must be declared under Codex and national rules, and precautionary statements are used for unavoidable cross-contact.
Nutrition and health claims follow the rules for all foods. A plant drink fortified with calcium may claim to be a source of calcium if it meets the threshold, and may carry permitted calcium health claims where the rules allow. Comparisons with milk, such as 'as much calcium as milk', must be accurate and fair, taking account of sedimentation and declared values. Claims about the environment, such as 'climate-friendly' or 'lower carbon than dairy', are increasingly regulated under consumer protection law, which requires that they be specific, substantiated and not misleading; general environmental claims without evidence have been challenged by regulators in several regions.
For filled milks and fat-filled powders, Codex standards require that the name indicate the presence of vegetable fat, such as 'blend of skimmed milk and vegetable fat in powdered form', and that the product not be presented as milk powder. Misrepresentation of fat-filled powder as whole milk powder, especially when repacked into small retail packs, is a recurring fraud that labelling rules and inspection aim to prevent.
Consumers buy plant-based and other dairy alternatives for several overlapping reasons. Health motives include lactose intolerance, cow's milk protein allergy and the perception, accurate or not, that plant foods are healthier; some consumers avoid dairy because of concerns about saturated fat, hormones or acne, on evidence of varying strength. Ethical motives include animal welfare and veganism. Environmental motives have become prominent: life-cycle assessments generally find that producing a litre of cow milk emits more greenhouse gases and uses more land than producing a litre of soy, oat or almond drink, while almond cultivation can use large amounts of irrigation water in dry regions. These comparisons depend on whether they are made per litre, per gram of protein or per unit of nutrition, and on farming systems that vary widely between countries.
Taste, convenience and novelty also matter: oat drinks became popular partly because they foam well in coffee, and new flavours attract curious buyers. Many buyers of plant-based products are not vegan but flexitarian, buying both dairy and plant products and switching depending on use.
Barriers to adoption include taste and texture, especially for cheese alternatives; price, as many plant products cost more than milk; perceptions that they are highly processed or contain many additives; lower protein content; and cultural attachment to dairy. In many regions with traditions of plant milks, such as soy milk in East Asia, plant drinks are long-established everyday products rather than alternatives to dairy.
The plant-based dairy alternatives market grew rapidly through the 2010s, led by plant-based drinks, which form the largest segment, followed by yoghurt alternatives, frozen desserts, creamers and cheese alternatives. Its share of the total milk market remains a minority in most countries, larger in value than in volume because plant products are more expensive, and highest in parts of North America, Western and Northern Europe, Oceania and East Asia. In the early 2020s growth slowed or reversed in some markets as inflation squeezed budgets and novelty faded, while it continued in others; market data should be read with attention to their source, definitions and whether they measure volume or value.
The industry includes specialist plant-based companies, large dairy companies that have launched plant-based lines or bought plant-based brands, and food companies from other sectors. Many dairy processors now produce plant-based drinks on the same UHT and aseptic lines used for milk, which is technically straightforward but requires careful allergen management and cleaning. Ingredient suppliers sell plant proteins, oils, starches, hydrocolloids, enzymes and cultures designed for analogues.
Traditional dairy markets are also affected in other ways: fat-filled milk powders compete with whole milk powder in import markets, and creamers and whiteners compete with milk and cream in hot drinks. Precision-fermentation proteins are at an early commercial stage, with costs that remain higher than those of dairy proteins.
For dairy businesses, analogues are both competition and opportunity. Some dairy cooperatives and companies have responded by promoting the nutritional strengths of milk, such as protein quality, calcium and iodine, and by defending dairy terms in law; others have diversified into plant-based and hybrid products, or into precision-fermentation partnerships, using their processing, distribution and brand assets. Both responses rely on technical knowledge of how these products are made and how they compare.
For the dairy technologist, the practical skills are the same as for dairy products: formulation to target composition, emulsion and colloid stability, heat treatment and aseptic processing, fermentation and texture control, sensory evaluation, shelf-life testing, fortification and stability of micronutrients, allergen management on shared lines, and labelling to the rules of each market. Plant ingredients bring their own variability, contaminants such as mycotoxins and heavy metals, and microbial hazards, which require supplier approval and testing.
The professional duty is honesty in both directions: not overstating the nutritional or environmental benefits of dairy or of its alternatives, and helping consumers, policy-makers and colleagues understand the evidence. Product development guided by sound science and clear labelling serves consumers better than marketing claims on either side of the debate.
Make soy drink in the laboratory twice, once by cold grinding and once by grinding in boiling water, and taste the difference: it teaches lipoxygenase better than any text. Compare the labels of several plant drinks with cow milk for protein, calcium, B12 and iodine, and shake and unshake a calcium-fortified carton before analysis to see sedimentation. Learn the Codex definitions of milk product and composite milk product precisely, because naming questions in examinations and in real label reviews turn on them.
A product developer five years into the job formulates plant-based drinks, yoghurt alternatives, hybrids and fruit yoghurts: choosing proteins and starches, setting enzyme treatments, solving sedimentation, syneresis and off-flavours, specifying fruit preparations, designing fortification with overages, and checking names and claims against each market's rules. Typical decisions: whether a hybrid may be called yoghurt, how to keep calcium suspended through shelf life, and how to schedule plant and dairy runs on one line without allergen cross-contact, and how to validate the cleaning between them.
A technical or strategy director with 25 years' experience decides whether and how a dairy business enters plant-based, hybrid or precision-fermentation categories, and whether to invest in shared or dedicated lines. They weigh market data critically, assess the regulatory risk of names and claims in each market, and judge environmental claims on the basis of sound life-cycle evidence. They also lead the company's public position on dairy and its alternatives, which demands credibility and accuracy with regulators, customers, farmers and the press.
A professor or research leader works on protein functionality and modification for plant-based cheeses, the assembly of casein micelles from recombinant proteins, fermentation of plant bases for flavour, bioavailability of minerals in fortified drinks, and the nutritional and environmental comparison of dairy and alternatives on a fair basis. Independent research and transparent methods are essential in a field where commercial interests on all sides fund much of the work and shape public debate. Training students to read such studies critically is part of that role.
Composition figures for plant drinks are typical ranges; brands and countries differ widely. Rules on dairy terms, novel-food approval of precision-fermentation proteins and environmental claims are changing quickly and differ by jurisdiction; only general principles and a few examples are given. Market size and growth figures are deliberately not quoted because published estimates disagree and change year to year. Detailed processing of tofu, tempeh and other traditional soy foods, and of non-dairy frozen desserts, is outside this subject; frozen desserts are covered in frozen-dairy-desserts.
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