Sales of nondairy milk rose 9 percent over the past year. Both omnivores and vegans are creating a demand for plant-based products.
It’s not just the vegans.
Plant-based food sales rose 20 percent over the past year to more than $3.3 billion, according to new retail data from Nielsen and the Plant Based Foods Association. Nondairy milk sales rose 9 percent over the past year to $1.6 billion, making it the biggest sector of the category. Plant-based creamers are up 131 percent, at $109 million in sales; cheeses are up 43 percent, at $124 million; and yogurts grew 55 percent, reaching $162 million. Even plant-based meats were up 24 percent, hitting $670 million in sales. In the same year, cow milk sales fell 6 percent, by dollar value.
Shoppers aren’t necessarily choosing almond milk instead of 2 percent. Nearly nine in 10 households that purchase a milk alternative also bought dairy milk, according to a 2017 USDA report. Simon attributes a lot of this to mixed households, with dairy and nondairy drinkers, but individuals are consuming both. Sixteen percent of the plant-based milk-drinking users on Lose It!, the calorie-tracking app, also logged some form of dairy milk.
Food behemoths are moving into the space. Campbell Soup Co., famous for its canned chicken noodle soup, now also sells Bolthouse Farms Plant Protein Milk, a pea-based dairy alternative. “Campbell introduced [it] to give people an alternative to both traditional dairy milk and lower-protein alternative milks,” said Anita Shaffer, Global Nutrition Program manager at Campbell. While a serving of almond milk is low in protein compared to dairy milk — typically 1 gram of protein, compared to 8 grams — Bolthouse’s Plant Protein Milk has 10 grams.
“In reducing meat consumption, cholesterol and saturated fat are the biggest two things consumers are looking to avoid,” said Will Schafer, vice president of marketing at Beyond Meat. One four-ounce patty of 80 percent lean beef has about 80 milligrams of cholesterol and 9 grams of saturated fat. The company’s equivalent Beyond Meat burger-made with pea protein and beet juice that makes it “bleed” when cooked-has no cholesterol and 5 grams of saturated fat.