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Novozymes launches oat drinks toolbox

As the market for oat drinks grows, Novozymes has developed a new toolbox designed to guide producers to expand their businesses into oat drinks.

Half a billion people worldwide are either vegan or vegetarian, the company notes. 26% of millennials have already embraced the lifestyle and 73% among them are willing to pay more for sustainable food and drinks. The combination of these trends is, says Novozymes, giving the sale of oat drinks a boost, with an expected growth of 30% a year.

“A new market is opening up and booming. To help dairies and beverage producers expand their portfolio and create new types of oat drinks, we have developed a toolbox that can help them expand their business into this new territory,” said Alessandro Palumbo, Market Development Manager at Novozymes.

Oat drinks is the fastest growing category in the plant based beverage segment, according to Novozymes. This, it believes, is mainly due to the fact that oat drinks have one of the best nutritional profiles among dairy alternatives. Oat drinks are also known for their benefits when it comes to sustainability.

However, the company continues: in spite of huge interest and a growing market, a study finds only two in 10 consumers think that plant protein is extremely good tasting.


The new enzymatic toolbox developed by Novozymes is claimed to be the first of its kind. The company says it provides insights into how to use and combine enzymes, raw material and production parameters to adjust sweetness, mouthfeel and nutritional profile in oat drinks, as well as insights for producers into how to optimize the production process and save costs.

“The toolbox gives dairy and beverage producers the opportunity to develop the oat drinks consumers want. By teaming up with Novozymes, they will be able to select the flavor and nutritional profile of their drink, starting from a prototype and quickly scale it up using the perfect combination of enzymes, raw materials and equipment,” said Palumbo. “This will help them to speed up the go-to-market process while reducing their risks related to new product development”.