It’s Nationwide Ice Cream Day 2021, And No Cows Are Allowed

It’s Nationwide Ice Cream Day. In recent times the which means of ice cream has taken a flip, mirroring the altering consuming preferences of People. In accordance with Gallup, whereas simply 5% of US residents are vegetarian or vegan, practically 25% have reduce on consuming meat. What’s extra, 41% of People have tried plant-based meats. And an estimated half of People purchase dairy-free milk. 

For this 12 months’s Nationwide Ice Cream Day, grocery chains like Entire Meals are highlighting their dairy free choices alongside standard decisions, and for a purpose. Plant-based ice lotions are rising at 26.5% YoY whereas their dairy counterparts are rising at 1%, based mostly on SPINS information.

The class is estimated to hit $1BN in gross sales by 2027. Whereas that’s at the moment a sliver of the general ice cream and frozen desserts market, mainstream manufacturers are taking discover. Baskin Robbins launched oat-milk based mostly ice cream in any respect of its places in 2021. Unilever govt Matt Shut reported an ‘explosion’ of non-dairy ice cream gross sales, however issue attaining the consistency of ice cream. There’s a flurry of R&D within the class by new entrants who’re highlighting inventive substances to attain the consistency of ice cream and its nostalgic flavors.

Enter the challenger manufacturers

Registered dietician and Licensed Holistic Well being Coach Kailey Donewald seen altering shopper preferences years in the past. She began the dairy-free, Chicago-based ice cream firm Sacred Serve in 2017 to carry a more healthy different to the phase, beginning with Entire Meals.

Donewald has been innovating on dairy-free flavors that conjure up childhood favorites like chocolate and mint chip, however with a twist. Utilizing natural younger coconut Thai meat as the bottom, her recipes incorporate superfoods, adaptogenic herbs, medicinal mushrooms and low-glycemic coconut sugar. For example, Sacred Serve’s latest taste, cookies and cream, has no ‘cookies’ or ‘cream’ on the ingredient listing. Tigernuts and activated charcoal are central to the recipe.  

Donewald explains, “Tigernut flour is the star of our latest Cookies N Cream taste. Tigernuts are extremely distinctive as they aren’t a nut in any respect, however a root vegetable. They comprise necessary nutritional vitamins and minerals, are gluten-free, paleo pleasant, and filled with prebiotic fiber that’s nice for the intestine. Because of their pure sweetness, I knew they might be the proper flour substitute for making our cookies. Activated charcoal, a superb powder made out of coconut shells, is a identified detoxifying agent used to entice toxins and fuel within the intestine, stopping their absorption and serving to your physique remove them. We discovered it lends itself to the proper “oreo” style. And similar to that, Cookies N Cream — with none cookies or cream — was born.”

Taking one other strategy to substances, Courageous Robotic makes a dairy free ice cream from whey protein to imitate the creaminess of conventional ice cream, leading to a lactose-free, vegan product. In accordance with The Spoon, the corporate, “makes its dairy by genetically modifying microflora to provide the 2 primary proteins in milk: casein and whey. They mix the dried proteins with plant fat, water, nutritional vitamins and minerals to make a lactose-free product that has the identical properties — style, consistency, and dietary breakdown — of milk.” 

Each firms have a robust deal with sustainability of their substances provide chain. Sacred Serve was the primary to attain a 100% recyclable, plastic-free packaging, a feat that giants like Unilever haven’t but reached.

A profitable class

Oat-based milk firm Oatly’s $10BN IPO hit earlier this 12 months, following on plant-based meat large Past Meat’s 2019 IPO. On the M&A entrance, earlier this 12 months Human Co introduced a majority stake in Coconut Bliss — a dairy-free ice cream firm — with undisclosed phrases. And in March of 2021, plant-based egg firm Eat Simply landed $200 million in a spherical led by the Qatar Funding Authority.

Analysts at Pitchbook Information are watching the plant-based different meals class, calling it each `pandemic and recession-proof.’  Meals-tech startups had raised practically $16 billion in Q1 2021, practically surpassing the full quantity raised in 2020.

Donewald shouldn’t be shocked. She concluded, “Now greater than ever earlier than shoppers are merchandise by way of the lens of well being and wellness, particularly post-pandemic. Plant-based has garnered quite a lot of consideration for being higher for you and higher for the surroundings, so extra shoppers wish to make the change.”