However, some of these crops, like oats, can be tricky to harvest and resource-intensive. With this in mind, Swedish company Dug has introduced potato-based milk to the $7 billion plant-based milk market. Dug’s potato milk alternative is more sustainable and easily harvested.
Potato Milk Vs. Dairy, Oat, Rice, And Almond
So, why potatoes? For starters, dairy-based milk is more resource-intensive than plant-based. For example, a single glass of milk results in three times more greenhouse gases than any plant-based milk. In addition, potatoes are more sustainable than many popular plant-based alternatives. For example, almonds need 130 pints (61.5 liters) of water to make a single glass of nut milk – potatoes, on the other hand, use 56 times less water.
When comparing potato milk with oat milk, potatoes are more efficient growers, using half the land that oats require. Another plus is that they can be cultivated almost anywhere since they need little to grow. Only one hectare can yield more than 250,000 portions of food, with a low carbon footprint.
Meanwhile, rice is a water hog. It takes 3,000 to 5,000 liters of water to produce only one kilogram of rice. According to EDF, rice production is responsible for releasing harmful greenhouse gases (including methane and nitrous oxide) into the atmosphere; its warming impact could be as much as 1,200 average-sized coal power plants.
Award-Winning Brand
Since potato milk isn’t a major allergen – unlike soy, dairy, and some nuts – the milk can reach a far wider audience. The World Food Innovation Awards 2021 recently crowned Dug winner of the Best Allergy-Friendly Product.
The company states:
DUG, our new, patented, award-winning, potato-based dairy alternative, ticks all the boxes: deliciously creamy, perfectly foamy, super–sustainable, and versatile, performing just as well in hot drinks as it does in cooking and baking.
Should you be interested in trying this genius potato milk, you can get it online – it comes in three flavors: original, barista, and unsweetened, and sells for between £2 ($2.75) and £4 ($5.49) a liter.
