Skinny spud latte to go? Potato milk hits UK supermarket shelves

theguardian.com:

First came soya, nut and then oat but the new challenger to the plant milk crown is the humble spud as potato milk arrives on UK supermarket shelves.

Described as “deliciously creamy” and capable of producing the “perfect foam” for a homemade latte or cappuccino, the Swedish potato milk brand Dug goes on sale in 220 Waitrose stores this week.

Sales of plant-based alternatives to milk are booming in the UK with the market now worth about £400m a year as Britons reduce their consumption of animal products.

In recent years the buzz has been around oat milk, thanks to the success of rival Swedish brand Oatly, but in its recent food and drink report Waitrose predicted that in 2022 it would be “the turn of the potato”.

Waitrose said that in 2021 its sales of plant-based milk were almost a fifth higher than in 2019 as alt-dairy entered the mainstream. Oat milk is the current bestseller, ahead of almond, soya and coconut, it said.

Waitrose’s alternative milk buyer, Alice Shrubsall, said sales of the products had “gone from strength-to-strength over the past few years” adding: “Demand hasn’t slowed in this market and we’re seeing customers become more experimental with their alternative milk choices.”

Emma Källqvist, the acting chief executive of Veg of Lund which owns the Dug brand, said its arrival on the high street was a “critical milestone” for the company. It is already available online on sites such as Amazon and Ocado.

For many alt-milk fans the attraction is they offer a route to reducing the environmental impact of their diet due to the level of greenhouse gas emissions associated with traditional dairy farming. However, the Advertising Standards Authorityrecently banned a marketing campaign by Oatly, ruling that the green