What's in a label for plant-based milk?

Some people believe plant-based and dairy milks are nutritionally similar, but that’s not the case, according to Melissa Wright, Director of the Food Producer Technical Assistant Network at Virginia Tech.

She says it’s important for consumers to educate themselves about food labels, and the guidelines released by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can help them better understand the nutritional difference between plant-based and dairy milks.

According to Wright, the largest nutritional differences are protein and carbohydrates. “While plant-based beverages might contain as much protein as dairy milk, the key piece of information that consumers don’t always know is that not all protein is equal when it comes to human digestion.”

All sources of protein have a protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score (PDCAAS) which evaluates the quality of a protein based on the amino acid requirements for humans and their ability to digest it, she said.

“The major components making up carbohydrates in plant-based milks are fibre and sugar. Dairy milks have no fibre, so all of the carbohydrates come from sugars. The key takeaway here is that almost 100% of the sugar in plant-based beverages are added sugars,” Wright said.

“The recent FDA decision to add to the nutrition facts panel makes a distinction between natural sugars (like the lactose in milk) and added sugars (like the cane sugar added to sweetened plant-based milks). Milk sugar (lactose) provides a nutritional benefit to humans that cane sugar does not.”

According to Wright, most plant-based milk options — oat, almond, rice, coconut, hemp, cashew, hazelnut, soy, pea, flaxseed and sesame — have similar nutrition profiles.

“Coconut can have more fat than others, soy has more protein than the rest, sodium content is very consistent among all, oat and hazelnut can have more sugars, oat can have more calories than some,” Wright said.

In the list of sources, there are many potential allergens represented, including tree nuts, soy and sesame. “Many consumers leave dairy milk because of lactose intolerance, but may find that they are sensitive to the proteins in plant-based products as well. Reading and understanding labels is important for that reason,” Wright concluded.

Image credit: iStock.com/simarik