Preface

Foods based on milk, as well as those containing milk, are important elements in the human diet. Unfortunately, due to containing ingredients that may cause intolerance or allergy, these products cannot be consumed by consumers suffering from hypersensitivity to lactose, galactose, or milk proteins. People suffering from this dysfunction must often eliminate milk and dairy products from their diet. Similar exclusions are made by people opting for veganism or other forms of elimination diets with an ideological, ethical, or health background. The response to this tendency and consumer expectations is the creation of new brands of veg producers, as well as the introduction of plant variants to the offer of large companies. It is influenced by the increasing nutritional awareness of people, more affordable prices, and the increasing availability of ready-made vegan or vegetarian products. At the same time, the number of people who consume a traditional diet but willingly include plant dishes is increasing. This is explained by the desire to diversify the nutritional and taste profile of the diet. The increasing tendency of allergies to animal proteins, including milk proteins, as well as lactose intolerance, is not without significance for expanding the availability of plant substitutes. In connection with all of this, a serious challenge for the food industry is the development of new, alternative products with attractive tastes and comparable nutritional values to replace dairy products. More and more shops and restaurants are offering plant-based equivalents of animal products.

Factors such as increasing pro-health awareness, more frequent occurrence of allergies and lifestyle diseases, and an increasing number of vegan consumers have contributed to the growing demand for alternative products. The dairy product alternatives market began its development with dairy drinks as milk substitutes. The plant beverages market is growing both in terms of the scale of production and the variety of raw materials used in the production of beverages. Soybean was one of the first raw materials used to produce vegetable drinks in the form of milk substitutes. Its popularity within this product category is weakening in favor of others, such as nuts (almonds, hazelnuts, cashews, ground almonds), grains (oats, rice, quinoa, buckwheat, millet, corn, and kamut wheat, spelt) and hemp, sunflower or chia seeds as well as coconut or banana fruit. In addition, the raw materials that diversify and enrich plant-based drinks provide taste, color, and aroma. It is worth emphasizing that plant drinks are a source of fiber and other ingredients such as vitamins D, B12, and B2, which are enriched in these types of products and at the same time do not contain cholesterol and lactose. According to all forecasts, the Polish market for plant drinks will develop dynamically. Its development will be based on expanding the range of raw materials that meet gluten-free and high nutritional values, based on natural ingredients, and originating from organic farming. Currently, the most popular plant drinks are rice milk, which has a delicate taste, and oat milk, which has a mild taste and contains naturally occurring prebiotic substances like beta-glucan. Oat milk can also be made gluten-free. Beverages such as coconut, millet, and almond milk are extremely popular due to their characteristic organoleptic feature. It is probably only a matter of time before beverages from other previously unused sources appear on the market, for example, grains, nuts, or other plant parts. The greatest technological difficulty in the plant-based

market is the stabilization of beverages. Stabilization of the fluid structure ensures uniform dispersion of particles that will be durable regardless of the application. In most cases, manufacturers do not declare stabilizing additives, and therefore the consumer considers possible delamination. Stabilized drinks are characterized by a smoother and more stable structure. In addition to plant-based drinks, the market also offers plant-based creams, cheeses, butter, and fermented beverages based mostly on prepared vegetable proteins as well as coconut fat or other vegetable fats.

The nutritional importance of protein is confirmed not only in the diet of humans but also of animals. Nutritional problems on a global scale will force us to look for new vegetable sources of protein for feed for farm animals, especially in developing countries.

The increase in health problems, as well as the increased awareness of sustainable development, direct the processing and fodder industries to wider use of proteins of plant origin. The food industry should perceive the market of vegetable proteins not as a competition, but rather as a source of innovation for its own products based on cow, goat, or sheep milk. This takes advantage of the popularity of plant-based proteins, especially as some studies show that one in three consumers prefer plantbased over animal proteins. In addition, many plant-based protein products are strongly associated with sustainability and rated as having a low carbon footprint.

> **Małgorzata Ziarno** Department of Food Technology and Assessment, Institute of Food Sciences, Warsaw University of Life Sciences SGGW-WULS, Warsaw, Poland

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Section 1

Human Health and

Consumer Acceptance

Section 1
