Dive Brief:
- Pea-based milk producer Ripple could disrupt an already disruptive plant-based dairy industry with new technology and promoting itself as having additional health and sustainability benefits as compared to category leaders like almond and soy milk.
- Ripple developed a technology the company is currently trying to patent that separates the pea's health benefits from the flavor and color.
- According to Ripple, it has a 93% smaller carbon footprint compared to traditional dairy.
Dive Insight:
One drawback to certain plants is that while they provide desirable health benefits, manufacturers have a difficult time engineering the plant's flavor and color out of the resulting product. If Ripple's technology were widely available, manufacturers could use more plant types to add a variety of health benefits and functionality to food and beverage products.
Pea-based milk can also lead to other pea-based dairy products, such as yogurt. With its own high protein content, pea-based milk yogurt could give the Greek yogurt industry stiff competition. And that could be in terms of both breakfast and other eating occasions, as Chobani is currently exploring.