‘One in three Britons consume plant-based milk’

Retailers and store-owners cannot ignore the plant-based products anymore as a recent report claim today (17) that one in three Britons drink plant-based milk and it now considered a mainstream choice for UK consumers. Among plant-based milk, oat milk seems to have emerged as most-popular choice in the country.

As per a research by Mintel, 32 per cent of those polled in a survey drank plant-based milk- up from 25 per cent in 2020. The uptake is even higher among 25-to-44-year-olds which is at 44 per cent.

Shoppers spent £100 million more in 2020 on plant-based milks- which are made from oats, almonds, soya or more recently potato- turning it into a near £400m-a-year market, says the report.

A quarter of the 2,000 people polled said the pandemic had shaped their habit of eating vegan or plant-based food and drink. For the under-35s, the research reported the figure rose to 38 per cent.

Among all the plant-based milk, oat milk has become the most popular plant-based milk of choice, overtaking almond to become the biggest seller in 2020, says the report, claiming that shoppers spent £146m on oat milk in 2020, up from £74m in 2019. By contrast, consumers spent £105m on almond milk up slightly from £96m.

Amy Price, a senior food and drink analyst at Mintel, pointed out that oat milk is the main beneficiary of the growing interest in plant milks, with sales also boosted by new barista-style varieties that could be foamed and used to make popular coffees such as cappuccinos.

Apart from oat and almond milk, potato milk is also rising in popularity and is appealing to young, coffee-fuelled crowd, much like oat milk brands Oatly and Minor Figures before it.

Overall, the total spend on plant-based milk reached £394m in 2020, up by 32 per cent in 2019. However, cow’s milk continues to remain a far bigger market, worth more than £3bn.

The average person’s milk consumption in the UK has fallen 50 per cent since the 1950s, but it soared again during the pandemic due to lifestyle changes.