Vegan and plant milks

What is the most environmentally friendly milk? 

Whether you're reducing or eliminating dairy, are lactose intolerant or vegan, this guide will help you find which plant milk alternative is best for you and the environment. 

In this guide we compare the carbon footprint of plant milk and dairy milk, look at what plant milks are made of, and if you can buy powdered vegan milk or vegan kefir.

We also look at who owns vegan plant based milk alternatives. Some are made by fully vegan companies, but some multinational dairy companies own vegan plant milk brands. If you're concerned about where your money ends up, you may want to check out the section on which brands are owned by dairy brands like Danone and Arla. 

This may be of interest not just if you're vegan but also because, spoiler, dairy production has a massive impact on the environment.

Almost half the UK adult population now use plant milk. But it’s nowhere near reached its peak. The UK milk alternative market is predicted to grow by an astonishing 75% in the next five years.

So, the choices we make now could enable the most ethical brands in this market to grow and become household names, making more sustainable production in this sector commonplace.

Which plant milk brands are in the guide?

Some small brands have ridden the wave of plant milk popularity, but some small ethical brands (like Dug, Sharpham Park and Rebel Kitchen), have dropped out of the UK plant milk market.

We didn't rate Good Hemp or The Bridge this time as they are not very widely available. There are, however, many new additions that have started making plant milk, so we’ve added these in.

Along with small brands, perhaps using niche ingredients like hazelnuts, we've included the big or multinational brands like Alpro, Almond Breeze and Oatly. 

We haven't included supermarkets in this guide but you can see how the various supermarkets score in our separate guide to supermarkets. Most supermarkets sell an own-brand plant milk along with some branded companies.

Why choose plant milk?

There are lots of reasons to choose plant milks, including concerns about animal welfare and concern about the planet. 

If we want a sustainable planet for ourselves and future generations, a simple step is to switch dairy milk for plant milk.

Plant milk carbon emissions lower than dairy

Soya and oat milk are the most environmentally friendly plant milks. 

They have remarkably low impacts compared to cow’s milk, whether you’re considering resource use or emissions per litre. 

A portion of soya milk uses around 95% less land and freshwater than a portion of cow’s milk, and releases 70% fewer emissions.

Pea often isn’t included in CO2 comparisons of plant milks, but Which? suggests that, from the limited existing data, it could be among the lowest carbon options. There’s still not enough data to be certain of this however.

Almond fares well on land use and carbon, but non-organic almonds are linked to higher amounts of water and pesticide use.

Our separate article comparing plant milks and dairy milk looks at water use, land use and carbon emissions in more detail.

What is dairy free plant milk made from?

Vegan plant milk can be made from a variety of plants including soya beans, peas, oats, rice, and various nuts and seeds. When we previously reviewed plant milk, we wondered whether buckwheat, hemp, and potato might be popular innovations. But it’s increasingly clear that almond, coconut, oat, and soya are the biggest players in this market.

We discuss the main ingredients used by plant based milk brands below.

Almond milk

Water use

Over 80% of the world’s almonds are grown in California, which experienced severe drought for much of the last decade, with 2022 the driest year in 128 years. The fact that almonds require significant water from the local area is a key reason why almond milk has gained something of a poorer reputation compared to other plant milks.

Almond Breeze and Califia are the only brands that source from California, with the rest sourcing from elsewhere (though Glebe Farm doesn’t say where it sources from).

But dairy still uses more water than almonds.

Pesticides and almonds

California almonds also come under scrutiny for pesticide use, and large monocultures can be harmful to local ecosystems. 

The easiest way to avoid high pesticide use is to choose an organic-certified product: Califia, Plenish, ReRooted, and Rude Health all have organic almond options.

Is almond milk bad for bees? 

As Califia says “without bees, almond trees can’t grow almonds”. They say they’re invested in bee health, and their largest almond supplier has its own in-house honeybee operation. But it’s relatively common for bees to be transported from afar into large almond growing areas, which can be stressful and result in bee deaths or injuries.

Animal rights organisation Viva! says cultivation of almonds depends on the “unnatural use of commercially farmed honeybees” – but it’s large monoculture almond farms that require this, and smaller ones might receive bee visits naturally. So not all almond milk is bad for bees.

Cashew milk

Workers' rights

Several reports have highlighted problems in the cashew industry, particularly around workers' welfare. 

The vegan cheese guide has an in-depth section which looks at the issues and what brands are doing about sourcing ethical cashews.

Coconut milk

Food miles

Coconuts tend to be grown in places like India, Indonesia, and the Philippines - far away from the UK. 

Farmer poverty

Coconuts are largely grown by smallholders, and tree crops grown in the poorer parts of the world are often associated with poverty (cocoa is another example).

One reason is that the crops take years to establish, and once farmers have invested in them, they have no choice but to keep harvesting them, even if they’re receiving very little money for their coconuts. This tends to lead to low prices, and most coconut farmers are very poor.

Fairtrade, with its floor price and a price premium, was partly designed to help with this issue, but there are no Fairtrade coconut milk brands available at present.

Monkey labour

Animal rights group PETA told us that monkeys were being abused in the Thai coconut industry, saying “terrified young monkeys are chained up, taught to obey through abuse and intimidation, and forced to climb trees to pick coconuts used to make canned coconut milk”.

Glebe Farm and Rude Health did not publish information on their coconut sourcing, but all other brands had statements against the use of monkey labour or didn’t source from Thailand.

Whichever brand you buy from, it’s unlikely you’re drinking coconut made from monkey labour. Professor Vincent Nijman at Oxford Brookes University says monkey labour is confined usually to small farms catering to local consumption, rather than for export, and PETA’s campaign focuses heavily on the thicker canned coconut milk rather than cartons.

PETA says ASDA and Co-op have stopped sourcing their own-brand coconut milk from Thailand, and hopes the Thai government will take action against monkey labour when it “realises its coconuts are internationally shunned in favour of products from countries with animal-friendly alternatives.”

PETA is calling for a boycott of tinned coconut milk from Thailand, so check the label and search to see if the brand has a statement about monkey labour before buying.

Oat milk

Oats are more likely to be grown closer to home – in Europe, or even the UK. They use less water than many other alternatives and are unlikely to be linked to deforestation.

Pea milk

Pea milk (often made from yellow split peas) is an excellent option if you value low water and land use, and low carbon emissions. Peas can be grown in Europe, so are less likely to have crossed oceans to get in your milky brew. As a legume, peas can help make soil richer and require less fertiliser than many other crops used for plant milk.

The Good Pea Co. uses yellow split peas sourced from Europe and is about to launch its new powdered product. Sproud sources its peas from France.

Soya milk

Soya is associated with deforestation in South America. But only a fraction of the soya grown globally is used to make soya milk. More than 96% of soya from South America ends up as animal feed or cooking oil. 

To minimise the risk that the soya you are drinking is associated with deforestation, it is good to look for a company that sources it from outside South America.

The brands that sell soya milk received the following scores in our soya sourcing rating:  

Companies' soya policies 

Plant milk brands that don’t sell soya milk but are owned by companies that are likely to use lots of soya or dairy, also lost marks in our soya rating.

Plamil began in 1956 as the Plantmilk Society (and thus the contraction to Plamil) and was founded by a vice-president of the British Vegan Society. It was one of the first widely available soya milks, so has a long legacy.

Which vegan milk brands make what kind of plant milk?

There are many types of plant milks available, although the most common ones tend to be almond, coconut, oat and soya. In the table below we list which brands in this guide make what type of plant milk.

We have included the most common types of plant milk here, but you can also find other plant milks such as hemp seed milk.

Vegan milk brands owned by Big Dairy

The fact that more people are consuming plant milk, combined with the increasing pressure companies are under to take the climate emergency seriously, are probably key reasons why big dairy companies have been buying up small plant milk companies in recent years.

Being fully bought, or being invested in, by a big company does mean our purchases end up contributing to big dairy’s bottom line. But it also enables plant milk to reach more people and can help lower the price of products.

• Alpro – owned by Danone, world’s fourth largest dairy producer
• JÖRD – owned by Arla, world’s sixth largest dairy producer
• Minor Figures – secretive about its shareholders, one being Danone
• Oatly – part of a big investment portfolio which includes non-vegan food companies, and part-owned by the Chinese state
• Rude Health – recently bought by Finland’s largest dairy producer
• Sojade – owned by French company Olga, which sells lots of dairy 

Rude Health was bought out in October 2024 by Oddlygood Ltd, which is owned by Finnish dairy giant Valio Oy. Rude Health has consequently scored less well in this new guide than previously. It’s unclear whether this buyout affects the 10% share PepsiCo bought in Rude Health in 2020.

Some plant based brands sell other products with animal ingredients 

Some of the plant milk brands in this guide lose marks in our rating in the animal products category because of other products they sell which contain animal ingredients. 

For example, Almond Breeze is a vegan brand, but a few animal products are sold in its broader company group.

Rude Health and Glebe Farm sell some products containing honey.

MOMA sells one product containing milk, and its broader company group sells some products containing honey.

Which plant milk brands are fully vegan companies?

If you want to support a 100% vegan company, your options are: 

• Califia
• Koko
• Mighty
• Oato
• Overherd
• Plamil
• Plenish
• ReRooted
• Sproud
• The Good Pea Company

Other plant milk brand ownership

Some alternative milk brands are owned by a larger company, for example, MOMA is owned by AG Barr who makes Irn-Bru, and Plenish is owned by Britvic who makes products like Tango, J2O and Robinsons.

Can I buy vegan kefir?

With a growing interest in kefir (fermented milk), are there are vegan kefir milks available? 

Currently, the answer is no, not really. Sojade sells kefir soya yoghurt, but if you want vegan kefir milk you may be best making one from the raw ingredients. There are lots of recipes online.

Is there vegan condensed milk? 

Biona sells organic sweetened condensed coconut milk. 

The Carnation brand used to sell a vegan condensed milk, made from oat and rice, but it seems to have stopped making this (and the brand’s owned by Nestle so is unlikely to be a recommended brand). 

There are lots of recipes for making your own condensed milk online, often using just coconut milk and sugar.

Does vegan powdered milk exist?

Overherd and Mighty sell powdered plant milk, and The Good Pea Co. has a version ready for pre-order. You add water to the powder, and then theoretically can use it as you would any milk you bought in a carton.

Nottingham-based catering company Veggies has been trialling Overherd’s powder, in the hopes it will help them cut down on packaging. They told us:

“We found the taste and texture identical to regular Tetra Pak oat milk for both hot drinks and with cereals. It mixed in easily. As we can get through 100 or more Tetra Paks when catering at events, we look forward to carrying many fewer Tetra Paks back to recycle locally. We’ll be placing a bulk order with Overherd!”

Do any brands make vegan formula plant milk?

There are some vegan formula milks on the market, but as we’re not health experts we chose not to cover these.

Organic plant milk

Organic production is definitely better for biodiversity and ecosystems. 

Lots of people value how plant milk is often fortified with vitamins and nutrients. This can, however, disqualify the product from being labelled 'organic'. 

If you see plant milk as a way to get some of your nutrients, it might not make sense to buy an organic-labelled product as it won't have the added vitamins and minerals.

A great way around this is to buy from brands that use organic ingredients but which don’t label the final product as organic. That way you’re supporting organic agriculture but can still get added nutrients.

Brands that are entirely organic, or whose main ingredients are all organic, are: 

• Plamil
• Plenish
• ReRooted
• Rude Health
• Sojade

Brands with some organic options are: Alpro, Califia Farms, Glebe Farm, Jörd, Mighty, Minor Figures, and Oatly. These all received some marks for their organic products in our agriculture rating.

Is Sojade vegan and organic?

Sojade is a vegan brand but it’s owned by French company Olga, which sells a range of dairy products. Lots of these are organic which is positive in terms of animal welfare, but not all of them appeared to be – for example, its Petit Billy goat’s cheese.

How much do plant milks cost?

Soya is often the cheapest plant milk. Oat is among the more expensive options but it’s also very popular, so we’ve compared the cost of oat milk products.

Some more ethical brands (Oato and Overherd) are cheaper than the brands to avoid.

Some brands, such as Overherd and The Good Pea Co. offer subscriptions which lower the price further.

We’ve included Tesco’s own-brand dairy milk and some other supermarkets’ own-brand plant milks in the cost comparison. It’s better to buy from a plant milk brand than a supermarket own-brand one, but if you need a low-cost option then Waitrose’s own-brand plant milk is a good choice. We’ve also included in this table the other recommended supermarket brand (Co-op), most ethical mid-price supermarket (Sainsbury’s), and most ethical budget brand (Lidl).

See our guide to supermarkets for more on how they scored.

*Prices found on various websites in November 2024 using brand’s lowest-price oat drink (or other product if it didn’t sell oat, specified on table). For brands not widely retailed, bulk options were included.

How eco-friendly is plant milk packaging?

Packaging contributes just a very small amount to milk’s emissions – most occur earlier in the production process.

Most brands use cartons or Tetra Paks, with some also selling a few products in plastic or glass bottles.

Do Tetra Paks get recycled?

Tetra Pak says the average carton is made of about 70% paperboard, 25% plastic and 5% aluminium. The company says they can be recycled “where adequate collection, sorting and recycling systems are in place, at scale”.

It doesn’t say what percentage of Tetra Paks actually end up getting recycled, however, and it seems like lots of local councils may not be able to recycle them at scale.

In 2023, one Twitter/X user asked Oatly about an “easy to recycle” label on its Tetra Pak, and Oatly responded to say “It's true that if the technology isn't in place our packages won't be recycled”.

One blogger also claims to have contacted their (unspecified) local council about the issue, which responded by saying “in truth the UK has almost no Tetra Pak (or other similar types of cartons) recycling factories. As a result, last year only 2% of all cartons were recycled across the UK.”

It therefore seems that, whether your local council accepts Tetra Paks in the recycling or not, it may not actually get recycled.

Contact your local council asking whether they recycle Tetra Paks. It could be worth switching to plant milk powder or glass bottles if not.

Which plant based milk brands offer eco-friendly packaging?

ReRooted uses returnable glass bottles (with a small amount of plastic in the lid), making it the best brand on the market for packaging overall.

Powdered plant milks (Mighty, Overherd, and The Good Pea Co.) are sold in sachets and, as they contain the equivalent of several cartons of milk, use much less packaging overall than cartons. They also weigh less and take up less space in transit as the water is added at home.

Minor Figures uses Tetra Paks but also glass bottles that can be refilled at sites in many parts of the UK.

Oato is sold in glass bottles and delivered on milk rounds in many parts of the UK, but the company sells products in plastic bottles too. 

Make your own plant milk

One way to reduce the packaging element of buying vegan milk is to make your own. 

The most common plant milks made at home are soya and oat. 

How much protein is in plant milk?

If you're looking for a plant milk which has a high protein level, opt for the ones made of soya or pea as these raw ingredients are higher in protein than coconut.  

The amount of protein in vegan milk alternatives does vary by brand. For example, Co-op’s oat milk and Overherd contain under 0.5g of protein/100ml, whereas Oatly and Glebe Farm’s oat milk contain 1.1g/100ml. Source of figures in table.

For more information on meeting nutritional needs if you are switching to a wholly vegan diet, especially if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, see the NHS advice page.

Other ingredients in vegan plant milk

Some plant based milk alternatives contain only water and a few more ingredients, for example:

• Plamil: organic soya beans
• Sojade: organic soya beans
• PureOaty Barista (Glebe Farm): oats, sunflower oil, and salt
• ReRooted: organic oats and sunflower oil, oat flour, sea salt

But many products have longer ingredient labels. 

For example, Alpro’s soya milk ingredients list reads as follows: "Soya base (Water, Hulled soya beans (8.7%)), Apple extract, Acidity regulators (Potassium phosphates), Calcium (Calcium carbonate), Sea salt, Stabiliser (Gellan gum), Potassium iodide and Vitamins (B2, B12, D2)".

What are these extra ingredients for?

Vitamins and nutrients

Plant milks are often fortified with synthetic nutrients like calcium, vitamin D and vitamin B12, which can be harder to get on a plant based diet. One University of Reading article suggests we should look for products that have been fortified when choosing plant milk.

This rules out plant milks labelled as organic, which aren’t allowed to be fortified. But you can look for organic ingredients – this means that while the whole product isn’t organic, the key ingredient is, and the vitamins are added in.

The amount of vitamins and nutrients in products varies significantly: for example, Oatly and Sproud contain over twice as much vitamin D as Co-op’s GRO-branded oat milk.

Stabilisers

Some plant milks contain stabilisers, for example gellan gum (found in Oatly products), which is used to bind, texturise or slow down degradation of processed foods. Gellan gum can grow naturally on water lilies, but it’s also artificially produced by fermenting sugar with specific bacteria.

Acidity regulators

Oatly says it adds the acidity regulator dipotassium phosphate to prevent the oat milk from splitting in coffee, and Sproud uses it too. They also extend the product’s shelf life.

Vegetable oils

Sunflower oil (for example in Alpro) and rapeseed oil (Oatly) are often used for texture.

Starch

Brands like Overherd use modified starch, which gels, stabilises and thickens products.

Workers' rights in the plant milk industry

Just two brands scored full marks in our rating for workers.

Plamil has a comprehensive supply chain policy and manufactures products in its own factory. 

ReRooted is Living Wage certified, manufactures on-site, and orders supplies from co-operatives such as Infinity (Best Buy in our Ethical Food Supermarkets guide).

We can attest from our own experience at Ethical Consumer that being a member of a cooperative is empowering! While there’s huge range in the nature of co-ops today, the fact that members part own the company continues to make co-ops an ethical alternative to business-as-usual models. 

Tax conduct and plant based brands

Nearly two-thirds of the plant milk brands (63%) in this guide scored full marks for tax conduct. 

Jörd was the only brand to score zero (out of 100 points) for this category, with its parent Arla owning an insurance company in the tax haven Guernsey.

Carbon policies of plant based milk companies

Several small plant milk brands have strong discussion of their carbon impacts, showing that micro companies can play their part in tackling climate change.

Jord’s owner, dairy company Arla, was banned in 2023 from using the term “net-zero climate footprint” while marketing its products, which it was ruled gave a false impression that the products either create no climate footprint or that its been compensated for – which wasn’t proven to be true.