Plant-based yoghurt vs dairy yoghurt — nutrition study

The plant-based yoghurt market is expected to explode from $1.6 billion in 2021 to $6.5 billion in 2030. Now a University of Massachusetts Amherst food science major has researched plant-based and dairy yoghurts to find out how they compare on a nutritional basis.

Astrid D’Andrea, lead author of the paper which was published in Frontiers in Nutrition, said plant-based yoghurts have less sugar, less sodium and more fibre than dairy, but also have less protein, calcium and potassium.

“But when looking at the overall nutrient density, comparing dairy yoghurt to plant-based yoghurt, with the nutrients that we looked at, almond yoghurt has a significantly higher nutrient density than dairy yoghurt and all other plant-based yoghurts,” she said.

Working in the lab of senior author Alissa Nolden, a sensory scientist and assistant professor of food science, D’Andrea collected nutritional information for 612 yoghurts, launched between 2016 and 2021, using the Mintel Global New Products Database, accessed through UMass Libraries.

She used the Nutrient Rich Foods (NRF) Index, which assigns scores based on the nutrient density of foods. “This allowed us to compare the nutritional density of the yoghurts based on nutrients to encourage (protein, fiber, calcium, iron, potassium, vitamin D) and nutrients to limit (saturated fat, total sugar, sodium),” D’Andrea writes in her paper.

The NRF model was chosen based on the nutritional benefits of dairy yoghurt, which provides a complete protein that plant-based products are unable to provide.

Of the 612 yoghurts analysed, 159 were full-fat dairy, 303 were low- and non-fat dairy, 61 were coconut, 44 were almond, 30 were cashew and 15 were oat. The researchers used the NRF Index to rank the yoghurts from the highest to lowest nutrient density: almond, oat, low- and non-fat dairy, full-fat dairy, cashew and coconut.

The high scores for almond and oat yoghurts were attributed to their low levels of total sugar, sodium and saturated fat.

Hybrid yoghurts of the future

The findings could be used to help the food industry find ways to improve the formulation and nutritional composition of plant-based yoghurts in the future.

One option the researchers suggested is to create a hybrid yoghurt that is both plant- and dairy-based. This type of blending could provide advantages by combining the complete protein and gelling structure from dairy that the plant-based products are unable to replicate, while minimising total sugar, sodium and saturated fat.

“If we can blend plant-based and dairy yoghurt, we can achieve a desirable sensory profile, a potentially better nutritional profile and have a smaller impact on the environment,” Nolden said.

The team said further research is warranted for the development of a product that maximises the nutritional and functional characteristics of yoghurt.

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