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Description of Pea Milk -
Pea Milk is a plant-based alternative to dairy milk. It is available in several countries including the USA, UK and Australia and is vegan, nut – free and lactose free. Pea Milk is a part of plant – milks which are gaining in popularity due to increased lactose intolerance among consumers and demand for environmentally sustainable products. The plant-based milk industry as per 2019 estimates is to grow by $5 billion USD. There has been research in the role of pea proteins in preparing infant formula, yoghurt and calf mixtures. The colour is off-white and pea milk is made through crushing yellow split peas and mixing the soluble components with water. Pea Milk may also be prepared at home. It is perceived to be environmentally sustainable and requires less water than the production of dairy milk. There is limited information on the total carbon emissions and water consumption of producing ready to drink pea milk.

History
Plant based milks have emerged as an alternative to due to the increasing popularity of environmentally friendly products. Only 73% percent of young people in the UK aged between 16-24 drink dairy cow’s milk, in comparison to 94% in 1974. A main dietary reason for the increase popularity of plant-based milks such as pea milks is lactose intolerance, for example the most common food that causes intolerance in Australia is lactose and affects 4.5% of the population. In the United States, around 40 million people are lactose intolerant.

Research has found that plant milk companies send the message that plant milks are ‘good and wholesome’ and dairy milk as ‘bad for the environment’, and the article also reported that an increasing amount of young people associate dairy with environmental damage. There has been an increased concern that dairy production results in negative impacts for biodiversity, water and land use. These negative links between dairy and the environment has also been communicated through campaigning films such as ‘Cowspiracy’ and ‘What the Health’. Animal welfare concerns have also contributed to the declining popularity of dairy milk in countries such as US and UK.

Pea Milk was introduced in the United Kingdom retail market by the brand Mighty Society, and in Australia by the Freedom Foods Group. It was introduced in the USA Whole Foods Markets in 2015 by Ripple. By 2018 pea milk was available in more than 10,000 stores in the USA such as Kroger and Target. There has been an increase in popularity for plant-based milks, particularly in the last 10 years. Other brands of available pea milk in the United States include Bolthouse Farms and Silk.

Production
Plant milk is made through crushing of the plant substance and extracting its liquid. Like Milk, a product of Australia’s Own (by Freedom Foods Group) is made through a process of soaking yellow split peas and blending with water. Pea milks are fortified, which is the addition of vitamin D2 and B12 to the milk.

It is also possible to make home-made pea milk using peas, water, vanilla extract and dates that is non-commercial.

As per research, plant-based milk alternatives’ taste can be improved by fermentation and can increase the levels of Vitamin Bs and protein. This research has also predicted that fermentation will become emerge as an important trend as the plant- based milk market grows.

Taste and Composition
Using RDI (Reference Daily Intake) as a measurement, commercially available Pea Milk in the USA contains 13% of potassium, 10% of Vitamin A, 30% of Vitamin D, 15% of Iron, along with 4.5 grams of fat and 70 calories per unsweetened original flavoured cup

The Australian version, Like Milk, has zero sugar per cup in the original version, the same level of protein and calcium but less sugar than dairy milk. According to Dr Sonja Kukuljan, nine essential amino acids are present in pea milk. The Australian version of pea milk is described to have an off-white colour and is high in omega 6 fats. Business Insider Australia also described Ripple Pea Milk to have a savoury aftertaste, vegetable like quality, thick consistency and that the original version has half the sugar of 2% dairy milk. The UK product version of pea milk is also not green in colour and has a creamy quality. The thick, creamy consistency and presence of Omega-6 fatty acids can be attributed to sunflower oil.

The chocolate flavoured Ripple Pea milk has 12g of protein and has 8g more protein than coconut milk and lower amount of saturated fat in comparison to coconut milk. The UK product version of pea milk is also not green in colour and has a creamy quality. Another American reviewer has stated that pea milk is ‘creamy’ and the original unsweetened pea milk has a ‘pea like’ flavour. The thick creamy consistency and levels of Omega-6 fatty acids can be attributed to sunflower oil. It has also been described that in the unsweetened pea milk flavours the pea-like flavour is more apparent. They have also stated that it is thicker compared to other watery plant based milks such as soy milk and almond milk, and chocolate flavoured pea milk was described as ‘melted down ice-cream’ in taste.

Scientific studies have stated that the key features of plant-based milks should be its taste and nutritional value, and fortification may result in the avoidance of adding artificial products to improve their taste and sensory profile.

Other Potential Uses
Milk with pea proteins can be included in infant formula to improve its microbiological quality, which is to improve its probiotics and similarity to human breast milk.

There have been experiments using pea protein mixtures as a protein milk replacer for calves. Experiments have been conducted with Holstein calves to replace the protein from skim milk powder in their diets with pea protein concentrate – however the results indicated that newborn calves digested skim milk powder better than pea proteins. Neo-natal calves have difficulty digesting non-milk-based proteins.

There has been research in preparing yoghurt with milk enriched in pea proteins, and it was found that yoghurt prepared with 4% pea isolate with milk was conducive for probiotic strains to grow. The research also revealed that strains of Lactobacillus, which is a type of probiotic, can grow in mixtures with milk and pea isolate and this is not vegan as this research mixed cow milk with pea proteins to test probiotic strains growth. This strain as per the researchers has both the nutritional advantages of pea protein and probiotics. The researchers’ publication states that with a different strain of probiotic, Lactobacillus helveticus I the additions of pea proteins resulted in a pea – like flavour.

Environmental Impact
This alternative to milk has been gaining attention due to perceived benefits that it is ecologically sustainable. It requires 100 times less water to produce than almond milk, and 25 times less water than dairy milk. Another source has stated that the pea crops require six times less water than almond crops. The growing of pea crops also result in nitrogen levels in the soil and does not require extensive irrigation.

A biomedical engineer has stated that the dairy industry contributes to 25% of the total emissions of the food industry as a whole. Producing 1kg of milk requires 1.1- 2 square kilometres of land. It was also observed in the Livestock Science journal that milk and eggs require less land than productions of meats such as meat and pork.

Criticism -
There will be more nutritionally balanced plant milk available in the future as per academic research, because plant-based milks offer only limited nutritional benefits to humans and have a different taste to cow milk. Dr Hazel Wallace recommends cow milk for iodine, protein and calcium compared to plant- based milks. Plant based milks are marketed to have nutritional and health benefits however this is done because of the less naturally beneficial nutritional profile compared to cow’s milk. For example, pea milk is marketed to be high in protein, and has the same amount of protein per cup, 8g, as dairy milk and soy milk. Other types of plant milk often have an even lower level of protein when compared to animal milks. About half of plant-based milks have no protein or a negligible amount of protein. For example, almond milk has 1g of protein per cup.

Commercially available pea milk has Omega-6 fatty acids, but people are already consuming this in their diets and the impacts of excessive omega-6 fatty acid consumption is increased risk of developing a chronic disease. Examples include diabetes, heart disease and obesity.

Pea Milk is high in Vitamin D2, which is derived from plants, and dairy milk is composed of Vitamin D3, which is sourced from animals. Consuming Vitamin D3 leads to increased levels of Vitamin D in the blood levels compared to Vitamin D2.

In 2016 it was reported that Ripple foods shipped their yellow peas from France, attracting criticism that it has greenwashed customers, however Ripple Foods responded stating that they were transported using cargo ships, rail and trucks. Greenwashing is described by Business News Daily as a company exercising more efforts on environmentally friendly marketing rather than minimising its ecological impact. Another limitation is that the chocolate flavoured pea milk has 17g of sugar per cup which is equal to 4 teaspoons of added sugar.

See Also -
Soy Milk

Almond Milk

References.
Category:Cold drinks Category:Grains Category:Imitation foods Category:Legumes Substitutes Category:Milk substitutes Category:Non-alcoholic drinks Category:Plant milk Category:Vegan cuisine Category:Vegetarianism and drinks Category:Sustainable products