Oat milk facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Oat extract

Oat milk
Place of origin	Sweden
Invented	c. 1990
Food energy (per 240ml serving)	120 kcal (502 kJ)
Nutritional value (per 240ml serving)	Protein 3 g Fat 5 g Carbohydrate 16 g
Glycemic index	60 (medium)

Oat milk is a popular plant milk made from whole oat grains. It's created by mixing oats with water and then taking out the liquid. This drink has a smooth, creamy feel and a gentle taste, a bit like oatmeal. You can find oat milk in many flavors, including plain, sweetened, vanilla, and chocolate.

Unlike other plant milks that have been around for hundreds of years, oat milk is quite new. It was first made in the 1990s by a Swedish scientist named Rickard Öste. He also started the company Oatly, which became a big name in oat milk.

By 2020, oat milk was used in many different products. These included coffee creamer, yogurt alternatives, ice cream, and even chocolate. People often choose oat milk if they follow a vegan diet or if they can't drink cow's milk due to issues like lactose intolerance or an allergy.

Oat milk is also known for being better for the planet. It needs less land and water to produce compared to cow's milk and some other plant milks. This makes it a good choice for those who care about the environment.

How Oat Milk Started

The Idea Behind Oat Milk

Before oat milk, soy milk and almond milk were already popular plant-based drinks. Soy milk, for example, came from Asia and became common in stores in Europe and America. It was often used by people who couldn't drink dairy milk.

In the early 1990s, Rickard Öste, a food scientist at Lund University in Lund, Sweden, invented oat milk. He was studying how to create food systems that are good for the environment and helping people with lactose intolerance. Soon after, he started Oatly, the first company to sell oat milk.

Oat Milk Becomes Popular

Oatly, the first company to sell oat milk, grew very quickly. By 2019, their products were in thousands of coffee shops and grocery stores. Many other brands also started making oat milk, and it became available in many countries.

Around 2018, there was so much demand for oat milk in Europe and North America that stores sometimes ran out! This showed how much people wanted the product. To keep up, Oatly opened a new factory in New Jersey in 2019.

Sales of oat milk in the United States jumped from $4.4 million in 2017 to $29 million in 2019. By 2020, sales soared to $213 million, making it the second most popular plant milk after almond milk.

People started using oat milk in many ways, like in ice cream, yogurt-like products, and coffee creamers. Big coffee shops like Starbucks also began offering it. Its popularity grew because it's seen as good for the environment, needs less land and water, and fits with the rise of vegan diets.

Oat milk sales kept growing, increasing by 151% from 2020 to 2021. On May 20, 2021, Oatly became a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ stock exchange, showing just how big the oat milk market had become.

How Oat Milk is Made

The Production Process

Making oat milk is similar to making other plant milks. Oats have a hard outer shell, so they need to be processed to turn them into a liquid.

First, oat grains are measured and milled (ground up) to break their outer layer. Then, these ground oats are mixed in warm water and blended into a thick liquid called a "slurry." This slurry is then treated with special enzymes and heat. This process helps create a thick, liquid oat base.

Next, the liquid is separated from any solid bits. This is done by pouring, filtering, and spinning the mixture in a machine called a centrifuge.

After the liquid is separated, other ingredients are added. These can include important vitamins and minerals to make it more nutritious, or things like sweeteners, flavors, salt, and oils. Since plain oat milk has less calcium, iron, and vitamin A than cow's milk, these nutrients are often added to make it a good substitute. Finally, the oat milk is treated with heat, like pasteurization, to make it last longer on the shelf.

Challenges in Making Oat Milk

One challenge in making oat milk is that the tiny oat particles can be different sizes. To make the milk smooth and consistent, producers use processes like homogenization and add special ingredients called stabilizers.

Another challenge is that oats have a lot of starch. When heated too much, starch can make the milk thick and gooey. To prevent this, producers use enzymes like alpha- and beta-amylase. These enzymes break down the starch into smaller pieces, keeping the milk smooth.

Many oat milk brands also add important nutrients like vitamin D, vitamin A, vitamin B12, riboflavin, and calcium. This helps make oat milk a good nutritional choice.

Oat Milk and the Environment

Since about 2015, more and more people have become interested in plant-based foods. This, along with worries about animal welfare and the environment, has made oat milk very popular.

Compared to cow's milk and other plant milks, making oat milk creates less carbon dioxide and no methane. This means it has low greenhouse gas emissions. It also needs much less water and land. For example, oat milk production uses only about 1/15th the water needed for cow's milk and 1/8th the water for almond milk.

Oat Milk in the Market

From 2017 to 2019, oat milk sales in the United States grew ten times over. Oatly, a leading brand, saw its worldwide sales triple. In the fall of 2024, Oatly reported selling 141 million liters of oat milk, which was a 13% increase from the year before.

By late 2020, oat milk became the second-largest plant milk in the United States, right after almond milk, and it sold more than soy milk. By 2023, the global oat milk market was worth $3.7 billion and was still growing quickly.

What's in Oat Milk?

Nutritional content of human, cow, soy, almond, and oat milks

Non-human milks are fortified

When you compare oat milk to cow's milk, they have similar amounts of calories per cup. Oat milk has about 40% of the protein and 63% of the fat of cow's milk, but much less saturated fat. It has about 1.5 times more total carbohydrates, but less simple sugar.

A great thing about oat milk is that it has 2 grams of dietary fiber per serving, while cow's milk has none. Both milks have similar amounts of calcium and potassium, though oat milk often has extra nutrients added during making. Oat milk has a glycemic index of 60, while cow's milk is 47.

How People Use Oat Milk

Oat milk is often used as a substitute for cow's milk, especially in coffee. It's also used to make fermented products similar to yogurt and kefir.

Many Baristas (people who make coffee) like using oat milk. They say it needs less steam than cow's milk, froths well, and tastes rich and creamy. It also helps balance the strong taste of espresso coffee. Because of this, oat milk is becoming very common in major coffee shops.

See also

In Spanish: Bebida de avena para niños

• Almond milk
• Coconut milk
• Plant milk
• Pea milk
• Soy milk