Soy, Rice and Oat Drinks: Investigating Chemical and Biological Safety in Plant-Based Milk Alternatives

Abstract

During the last decades, plant-based milk has become very appreciated by consumers, becoming a staple ingredient, especially for alternative breakfasts. Milk contains lactose, which is a sugar hydrolysed by the lactase enzyme. Lactose intolerance and lactose malabsorption are very common food intolerances among individuals. However, a lot of consumers consider themselves as lactose intolerant on the basis of self-reported intolerance and start to avoid dairy products, ignoring that plant-based milk alternatives are not nutritionally comparable to animal milk, especially in terms of protein intake. The aim of this study is to grow folder knowledge of the security of plant-based drinks, helping competent authorities to issue a risk assessment and to apply national plans about consumer safety. Results show that proper sanitary practices, such as pasteurization, are necessary in plant-based milk alternatives as well as in dairy milk. Chemical analysis has highlighted that there are no pesticide risks for consumers.

Innovative application of microencapsulated polyphenols in cereal products: Optimization of the formulation of dairy‐ and gluten‐free pastry

“…Similarly, in other studies using these flours, glutenfree products were obtained (Jalali et al, 2020;Kim et al, 2020;Qin et al, 2021;Yu et al, 2021). In addition, the use of rice beverage made it possible to obtain dairy-free product (Boêno et al, 2020;Giugliano et al, 2023). Another important aspect of production was the exceptional cleanliness of the production site, which prevented cross-contamination (Agüeria et al, 2021;Bedford et al, 2020).…”

Plant-Based Dairy Alternatives Contribute to a Healthy and Sustainable Diet

“…Other PBDAs also score well in terms of low sodium content, saturated fat and calories [53] and additionally contain a range of naturally occurring bioactive components, such as polyphenols, with potential health benefits [123,124]. Soya-based drinks also have substantial levels of folate and some trace minerals compared to dairy milk [125]. Importantly, in contrast to dairy products, PBDAs have a substantially lower environmental impact, as seen above, in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, land use, eutrophication, and water use [11].…”