Plant-based drinks and spreads are taking up large sections of fridge space in shops in the US.

These drinks produced from oats, soy, almonds and other products can be called milk in the US, as rules governing their advertising are different to the EU.

In one shop the Irish Farmers Journal visited on a recent trip, the plant-based drinks actually came before cow’s milk in the shop.

We saw butter and cheese, followed by plant-based drinks and then cows’ milk.

Almond milk was one of the most popular plant-based drinks on the shelves and, in some cases, was mixed with coconut milk.

Some almond milk was flavoured with vanilla and, interestingly, some was labelled organic almond milk.

Brands

Soy and oat milk were also available and oats certainly seemed to be gaining traction with a number of different brands.

Interestingly, some of the oat drinks were labeled United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) certified organic and were non-GMO. Some oat drinks were gluten free and others were flavoured with chocolate or vanilla, while others noted they contained just three ingredients - oats, salt and water.

Famous brand Oatly also has a cream cheese product on sale, with oats, palm oil, potato starch and potato protein among the main ingredients.

It certainly looks like there is a growing market for plant-based drinks and oat milk is one of the big ones available.

Tirlán drinks

Tirlán has launched a product in the US - Truly Gluten Free.

We did not see it on our travels, but were only in a limited number of shops. Tirlán is also selling oat ingredients into the US market for the production of plant-based products.

This year, Tirlán announced results, along with Teagasc, on research showing that the co-op’s oat growers can produce carbon-neutral oats once the straw is chopped.

The low carbon footprint of the oats is seen as a unique selling point for the product.

An increase in the market would provide more premium contracts for Irish growers. In the harvest of 2023, Irish farmers were paid €30/t over feed wheat, €40/t over feed barley and €50/t over feed oats for gluten-free oats.