Health Benefits of Non-Bovine Milk: Approach towards green and sustainable life

Modern food technology allows designing products aiming to simulate and replace traditional food. In affluent societies there is a rising tendency to consume foods derived from plants including milk imitations or plant drinks based on cereals, nuts, legumes, oil seeds or other plant families. Herein we review production and composition of such drinks, summarize consumers’ motivations to change from milk to plant drinks and highlight nutritional and health implications of consuming plant drinks instead of milk, in particular if non-fortified and if consumed by infants, children, adolescents and the elderly. These plant-based beverages can be made from nuts (e.g., almonds, cashews, hazelnuts), coconuts, grains (rice, oats), legumes (soy, peas), seeds (flax, hemp, sesame, chia), and fruits (banana). Almond, soy and coconut non-dairy beverages have been the recent market leaders, with the sales of oat-based beverages now experiencing a surge. This article will assist the readers in making informed decisions on which milk can be consumed based on their dietary as well as social factors. While among plant-based milks flavour masking was considered a viable option to meet the consumer preferences. Literature has reported lower environmental impact of plant-based milks however; broad sustainability evaluation is needed for a better comparison with dairy milk. Overall, preference between plant and dairy milk significantly relies upon a wide range of factors and consumer circumstances.