Milk Matters: Oat Milk - What the Health?
Oat milk is perhaps the most popular alternative to cow’s milk amongst customers at Uplands Roast. It tastes great and reacts well to different foaming techniques. But what hidden ingredients are making it possible to achieve micro-foam with alternative milks and are any of their additives dangerous?
Frothy Oat Milk
What’s Hiding Inside?
For milk to foam we need adequate:
Proteins
Carbohydrates
Fats
Here is a good video explaining how foaming works with dairy milk.
If we want oat milk to foam like dairy milk, additives are required to otherwise simple plant based ‘milks’.
Some brands are able to achieve good foaming results with less ingredients - see Glebe Farm. However, arguably they do not foam as well as some of their additive laden counterparts.
“Our opinion is that natural foods, as nature presents them, are the healthiest options”
Popular Oat Milks & Their Additives
Oatly Barista
Oat base - Water & Oats 10 %
Rapeseed Oil
Acidity Regulator - Dipotassium Phosphate
Calcium Carbonate
Calcium Phosphates
Iodised Salt
Vitamins - D2, riboflavin, B12
Alpro Oat Milk Professional
Water
Oats 12 %
Sunflower Oil
Dipotassium Phosphate
Sea Salt
Minor Figures Oat Milk
Water
Oats 10 %
Low Erucic Acid Rapeseed Oil
Tricalcium Phosphate
Salt
Calcium Carbonate
MOMA
Oat base - Water & Oats 10 %
Rapeseed Oil
Acidity Regulator - Dipotassium Phosphate
Calcium Carbonate
Calcium Phosphates
Salt
Vitamins - D3, riboflavin, B12
Glebe Farm
Water
Gluten Free Oats 11%
Sunflower Oil
Salt
Our opinion is that natural foods, as nature presents them, are the healthiest options. Whole and natural foods with minimal processing and fiddling. The more we tamper with food ingredients, the more uncertain we are about what is going into our bodies. However, weighing up a holistic lifestyle there may be times when we want to consume processed food and the gains we get from tasty ‘alt milk’ with additives may outweigh other options.
There is reason to question the safety of these added artificial Phosphates
- (See Here!)
We use Oatly due to high demand from our customers for their alternative milk. But considering their recent buyout we are looking to potentially change supplier – it’s a difficult decision facing us here. We want to find a brand which makes amazing oat milk for foaming, doesn’t come in a non-recyclable tetra pak, isn’t owned by a global monstrosity, isn’t flown half way across the world and isn’t full of ingredients from a lab…
Any suggestions?
@Uplands Roast