PLANT BASED DAIRY ALTERNATIVES 2021
Optimum efficiency
Use of state-of-the-art analytics in the production
of plant-based beverages
Plant-based beverages are
enjoying growing popularity
among consumers. There
are many reasons for this, ranging
from the desire for sustainable
and healthy nutrition to vegetarian
or vegan lifestyles and concern for
animal welfare.
The market is booming. As early
as 2017, global sales of plantbased
drinks have reached almost
$250bn. With an annual growth
rate of 6.7%, this figure is expected
to almost double by 2028.1
Among the manufacturers pushing
into this market are large soft
drink and juice producers as well as,
increasingly, dairies that want to offer
their customers an alternative to
dairy products. There, near infrared
spectroscopy (NIRS) has been attracting
more and more attention
as a versatile instrument for quality
control and process management
for some time now.
But unlike dairy products, juices
or soft drinks, plant-based beverages
are relatively new on the market
and experience in production
optimization is still limited. In the
production of plant-based milk alternatives
in particular, high investments
are required, as oils, fats and
additives often have to be added
to match the taste and mouthfeel
of their animal-origin counterparts.
Economic use of resources and optimized
production conditions therefore
play a decisive role in the creation
of value.
This can be exemplified by the
production of oat drinks. Oats are
increasingly the raw material for
plant-based drinks. The reasons for
this are the relatively high protein
content, the high proportion of unsaturated
fatty acids and the fact
that oats are naturally gluten-free.
Oats also contain a lot of β-glucan,
which is said to have a positive influence
on the immune system, the cholesterol
level and a positive influence
on the blood level and blood sugar.2
Essentially, the production process
of an oat drink consists of the following
steps:
Selection of the raw material
Gelatinisation by adding hot water
and stirring
Addition of enzymes for splitting
starch into sugars and their deactivation
at a defined time
Separation of insoluble components
Addition of additives and, where
appropriate, the preparation of
mixed drinks.
The raw materials used are either
oat grains or flakes, already ground
as oatmeal, or liquid oat concentrates.
Oat grain is the most costeffective.
With regard to the quality
imparting ingredients, however,
it is subject to strong fluctuations
depending on the variety used and
seasonal changes. The same applies
to oat flakes and oatmeal.
NIRS is a reliable tool
For all agricultural products, near-infrared
spectroscopy (NIRS) has long
since established itself as a reliable
tool for non-destructive determination
of ingredients. Not only protein,
fat, starch, fiber and dry matter can
be analysed within a few seconds.
Simple, reliable, comes without tube: the DairyQuant GO for analysis in labs
or atline- of liquid to highly viscous samples
24 · January/February 2021 ¦ international-dairy.com
/international-dairy.com
