Projected to reach $66.9 billion by 2030, the dairy-free market is growing fast, but new insights from Nectar, an initiative by Food System Innovations, show not all categories are keeping pace.
Blind taste tests of nearly 100 plant-based dairy products across 10 categories overseen by Nectar found that some non-dairy barista milks and creamers now rival, or even beat, conventional dairy on taste, while yogurt and cheese still trail behind, despite significant inroads.
At the second annual Tasty Awards in San Francisco last week, Nectar highlighted standout winners, and offered a roadmap for plant-based dairy players on what’s working, and what needs to improve.
Accelerating plant-based protein adoption
Nectar is on a mission to accelerate the protein transition from animals to plants by emphasizing great taste. And to do that, it is conducting large scale, blind sensory studies of plant-based and sustainable protein products with omnivore consumers.
The initiative sets a high bar and only considers a product ready for “mainstream adoption” if at least 50% of tasters rate the product the “same or better” than the dairy benchmark on overall liking.
“When a product crosses that threshold, it’s considered a Tasty Award winner,” said Caroline Cotto, director at Food System Innovations.
At the Tasty Award’s inaugural ceremony last March, the non-profit examined alternative meats, and “didn’t have any products that met taste parity,” said Cotto, who expected a similar outcome for this year’s analysis of non-dairy options.
However, she said, “we were really excited to see that one of the barista milks actually achieved taste parity with its animal benchmark. Califia Farms’ barista oat blend achieved taste parity with Horizon whole milk.”
What is driving adoption of plant-based milk?
That progress isn’t happening by accident.
Plant-based milk and creamer brands are aggressively investing in flavor and function with a range of ingredients to meet consumer needs.
Tasty Award winner Ripple Foods, for example, is “harnessing the power of the yellow pea to make flavorful, nutritious, plant-based products that are sustainable and top nine allergen-free,” said Andrew Seaberg, vice president of R&D at Ripple Foods.
He explained the brand’s unlock came with its ability to remove plant off-notes from the final product to create a neutral flavor.
The brand also excels at functionality, added Nitika Dhamanker, director of research development at Ripple Foods.
“We wanted to make sure that the performance is on par with dairy. We can get that same creamy mouthfeel, the texture should be suitable for doing latte art,” she said.
The company’s success comes as consumer expectations rise.
“At the very beginning of plant-based foods, folks were compromising,” and more accepting of products that were too watery or didn’t whiten their coffee because there were few options, Seaberg said. But now, he added, “flavor expectations have increased over time, and the performance of the products have gotten better and better,” which is encouraging new consumers to enter the segment.
Advanced nutrition boosts plant-based milks
Plant-based milk newcomer Maïzly shares Ripple’s goal of uncompromised taste and function, but it uses corn as its base.
Officially launching last year, Maïzly stands out from a sea of oat-, almond- and rice-based non-dairy milks because it uses corn fiber as its hero ingredient.
Corn not only delivers a neutral taste that won’t “disrupt your beverage or cereal” but also a substantial serving of fiber in each serving, said company Co-founder and CEO Tim Leclercq.
“Corn fiber is actually one of the best forms of fiber you can consume because it goes further and lasts longer. And, you get a third of your daily requirement for one serving – so 8 grams of fiber per serving,” he said.
Milks lead the way, with cheese closing the gap
According to Cotto, plant-based milk – and barista blends in particular – are ahead of the curve of other non-dairy alternatives in part because stakeholders focused on flavor and function.
“In the creamer category, they are delivering that richness, that vanilla sort of creaminess. And then in the barista milk, it is flavor as well as they’ve really nailed the application – so it foams, it froths, in a way that traditional dairy milk does,” she said.
But, she added, “we are not seeing that as much in things like cheese, where it doesn’t quite melt or stretch the way consumers expect.”
Some plant-based cheeses are starting to break through, though, including startup Plant Ahead USA’s cheddar slices, which won a Tasty Award.
Company President Jeffrey Strah said the plant-based cheese segment struggles with creating products that melt and stretch like dairy without leaving an aftertaste or sticky, plasticky feeling in the mouth.
“We’ve achieved greatness in all those. So, we eliminated all that bad foul taste. We also eliminated the bad aftertaste and we made it so it doesn’t stick to your mouth,” he said.
Mozzarella lags behind
Along with Plant Ahead, three other brands won Tasty Awards for their non-dairy cheddar, including Field Roast, Follow Your Heart and Miyoko’s. However, there were no winners in the non-dairy mozzarella category.
“Consumers have a really high bar for mozzarella, especially in pizza applications, which is how we tested it,” said Cotto. “When they’re looking at a slice of pizza, they want to see that sort of gooey, bubbly, melty top they want it to stretch when they pull the slice out. And a lot of the options that we tested just aren’t delivering that from a textural perspective.”
She added there is “a lot of work to do in texture, as opposed to some of the other categories where flavor was the bigger opportunity,” such as with cheddar.
3 insights shaping the next generation of non-dairy products
While Nectar focuses primarily on taste, its research revealed several adjacent insights and opportunities that could help take non-dairy products to the next level.
For example, Nectar found that while consumers say they want more protein, higher amounts in non-dairy are negatively correlated with taste.
“People don’t really want a ton of protein in their ice cream or cream cheese,” Cotto said.
Nectar also found that half of consumers surveyed buy groceries with health in mind. Cotto underscores that this is “a real opportunity to lean in and target that health-focused consumer for dairy alternatives broadly.”
She also advised brands lean on satiety, nostalgia and creating an emotional connection with consumers.
“This is the first time we ever surveyed people about emotions they feel when purchasing or eating non-dairy and dairy products. We found that dairy products do a good job of creating that comfort and that joy and that satiation and nostalgia, while dairy-free products leave people a little disappointed,” she said.
“The dairy-free products could be better served by leaning into some of those emotions of joy and nostalgia and comfort,” Cotto added.
Top takeaway
Based on Nectar’s findings, the path forward for plant-based dairy is clear: keep improving taste, focus on functionality, and earn consumer trust – one category at a time.
