Beverage manufacturer Bickford’s is tapping into a new category, launching a vegan-friendly Premium Plant Milk range across Australia.
The five different plant-based milk varieties – Almond, Oat, Cashew, Macadamia and, an Australian first, Pistachio – are all made from more than 90 per cent Australian ingredients with no artificial sweeteners or GMOs.
Bickford’s group sales and marketing manager Chris Illman said the Australian alt milk market’s growth over the last four years – 48 per cent, 132 million litres – made the plant-based milks a natural step for the company.
Illman said: “2020 has been full of change, with Aussies adapting the way they live more than ever before. We’re responding to global demand for plant-based milks and Bickford’s Premium Plant Milk is the result of investment in world-class technology.”
In 2019, Bickford’s opened its HAACP accredited South Australian Operations Centre. Developed by Sidel in conjunction with Tetra Pak, it is one of only a handful in the southern hemisphere to use aseptic filling technology.
The entire plant-based range will be manufactured, bottled and warehoused at the facility.
Illman said the aseptic line ensures the Premium Plant Milk range is preservative free, fresh and full of flavour, as well as allowing the liquids to be run at a lower temperature than current hot-fill processes, meaning that the flavour and colour integrity of the nuts and grains is optimised.
“We’ve extensively tested each product for multiple uses – from café style milk, to topping your cereals or as an alternative when baking, to meet various ‘milk’ needs throughout the day – so that the range can be used like fresh milk and can be enjoyed hot or cold,” he said.
Bickford’s has the capability to blow, label and fill PET packaged products on site.
The new Plant-Based Milk range is all made using PET, with a proportion of recycled content in the 1 litre bottles.
The 1litre Bickford’s Premium Plant Milks are available from independent retailers nationally, found in the chilled drinks aisle, with a RRP of $6.
