FAQ

Fortified plant-based alternatives to dairy products, like oat drinks, are increasingly featuring in the milk and dairy group within authorities' dietary recommendations offering strong evidence for their scientific support. They’re an important product group which help to fulfil nutritional requirements of consumers who cannot or do not want to consume dairy products. 

A recent Swedish report compared the nutrient density of dairy products and plant-based drinks based on nutrient rich food (NRF) index (based on nutrients in relation to recommended daily intake rather than being “equivalent”). The report concluded that fortified plant-based drinks and fortified low-fat milk products have equivalent nutrient density. 

EU:  

Oat drinks have a different nutritional profile to cow’s milk. Both have nutritional benefits. See the table below which compares Oatly Semi and semi-skimmed cow’s milk, but to summarise: 

Fortified Oatly drinks have more: 
Fibre
Unsaturated fats
Vitamin D*
Carbohydrates

… about the same level of:
Calories
Total fat
Sugar (natural sugar)
Calcium
Riboflavin
Salt

… and less:
Saturated fat
Protein
Iodine*
Vitamin A
Vitamin B12*
Cholesterol

* most of the time, it varies, for example, on how the milk is processed. 

Nutritional Comparison of Oatly Semi and semi-skimmed cow’s milk 

* Range of nutrient levels for semi-skimmed cow’s milk, including chilled and ambient. Data was obtained in May 2024 from publicly available national composition databases from France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.   

** Except Sweden, where fortifying cow’s milk with vitamin D is mandated at levels of 1.0 μg per 100 mL.

*** not in Norway or Denmark

US: 

Oatmilk has a different nutritional profile to cow’s milk. See the table below which compares Oatly Original and your typical 2% cow’s milk, but to summarise: 

Oatly Original Oatmilk has about the same level of: 

Calories 
Total fat 
Calcium 
Riboflavin 
Vitamin D 
Sodium

… and less: 

Saturated fat 
Protein 
Sugar (natural sugar) 
Vitamin A 
Vitamin B12* 
Cholesterol

* most of the time, it really depends on the cow and how the milk is processed.

Nutritional Comparison of Oatly Original and 2% cow’s milk  

*Data obtained from USDA FoodData Central for Milk, reduced fat, fluid, 2% milkfat, with added vitamin A and vitamin D

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE TO READ:  

BDA article ‘Unpacking the myths around plant-based drinks’ September 2024.

17 Facts about Oatly and Nutrition (EU only) on our consumer site.

“Ultra-processed”, as categorised by the NOVA classification system. Foods are classified into four groups based on the degree of processing:

1. Unprocessed or minimally processed eg fruit and vegetables 

2. Processed culinary ingredients eg vegetable oil, table sugar 

3. Processed foods eg canned fruit and fish 

4. “Ultra-processed foods - UPFs” eg sweetened drinks, crisps and confectionary

UPF’s have become a catch-all term that has been oversimplified to mean "bad and unhealthy” by default. However, the classification overlooks the nutrient value of the final product. Consequently, whilst many UPFs are high in saturated fat, sugar and salt and should be eaten in moderation, there are also many foods and drinks that are not, for example, supermarket wholemeal bread, baked beans, houmous, many wholegrain breakfast cereals and many fortified plant-based drinks.

Whilst fortified plant-based drinks feature within numerous authorities' dietary recommendations around the world*, many have also been categorised as ‘UPFs’ by modern food scoring apps and food writers due to processing methods and the addition of nutrients to fortify products, without any consideration to their nutritional quality.

Furthermore, as well as not acknowledging that many foods categorized as UPF provide important nutrients, the NOVA classification also fails to consider the important criteria required for dietary guidance: understandability, affordability, workability and practicality.

Recently however an increasing number of scientists and scientific organisations have questioned the UPF concept and highlighting the issues of using this classification, advising we stick with dietary guidance based on nutrition quality, rather than how a product is made. Indeed, there is acknowledgment that the inclusion of some processed foods items can provide important nutrients that contribute to a nutritionally adequate diet.

That said, Oatly also manufactures organic drinks (in the EU) and Super Basic (in the US), which are often viewed more favourably by these food writers and apps. However health professionals should be aware that these options are unfortified with the vitamins and minerals that are added to our fortified drinks. Advice given by health professionals should therefore consider alternate sources of these nutrients to ensure the nutritional adequacy of the diet.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE TO READ:  

BDA article ‘Unpacking the myths around plant-based drinks’ September 2024.

Which? report ‘Is all ultra-processed food bad for you?’ 2024.

Oatly use calcium carbonate or a combination of calcium carbonate and calcium phosphate (dicalcium phosphate and tricalcium phosphate from ore). In the US our calcium is derived from limestone.  

Calcium carbonate and calcium phosphate are both used as supplements in the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis. Foods, such as cereals and flour, are often fortified with calcium carbonate, while liquids, such as juices, are more often fortified with calcium phosphate or other salts due to differences in pH. Calcium phosphate is also used in therapeutic foods for pregnant or lactating women or children with malnutrition. 

There is a misconception that cow’s milk is essential for strong bones and teeth. However, it is the calcium, rather than the cow’s milk which is key, along with other lifestyle factors known to help individuals achieve maximal peak bone mass early in life. 

Bioavailability of nutrients has received considerable attention in the past few decades. The bioavailability of calcium is defined as 1) the fraction of dietary calcium that is available for absorption, 2) the amount of calcium that is absorbed, and 3) the extent to which the calcium is used for bone mineralization. Each of these steps are affected by a number of other factors in addition to its form, including the age of the individual, the combination of foods eaten in the meal, the total calcium intake, and the person’s blood levels of vitamin D. The evidence regarding the bioavailability of different foods/types of calcium in humans is inconclusive, due to difficulties in measuring small differences in bone mineralization between different foods/types of calcium and due to the numerous factors that may affect the outcome (namely bone health). However, the absorption of calcium salts (including those typically used in fortified foods and drinks) has been estimated to be similar to that in cow’s milk (calcium bioavailability within 10%).  

As the bioavailability of calcium in fortified foods is dependent on the actual amount of added calcium, it is important to add sufficient calcium to plant-based dairy alternatives. Oatly fortifies its oat drinks with calcium at similar levels to that found in traditional cow’s milk, to ensure that our consumers get the same nutritional benefit. 

Whilst there are variations across global markets, Oatly oat drinks (except organic oat drinks) typically contain 120 mg calcium/100 ml (USA: 350 mg/240 mL cup), similar to that in cow's milk. They're also typically fortified with other nutrients including vitamin D, which supports normal calcium absorption and bone health as well as iodine, riboflavin, vitamins B12.

China: Calcium fortification in all drinks except Oatly Organic/Pistachio/Tea Master/Juice Master oat milks.

Oatly’s Oatgurt is also typically fortified, including calcium, iodine, vitamins B12 and D.

This is a difficult question as dietary needs differ. These needs will depend on the extent of the CKD, treatment status, and any other health considerations. 

The following values for Australia, China, EU and UK and USA may be useful when deciding whether Oatly drinks are suitable and how much can be consumed daily.

Due to its buffering properties, dipotassium phosphate is frequently used as an ‘acidity regulator`. It's used particularly to prevent acidic coffee (with its low pH) from lowering the pH of coffee drinks to a degree that would result in the 'feathering' (splitting or precipitation) of the plant-based drink. 

It's an approved additive within the EU as well as numerous other countries (including the USA, where the FDA has granted it GRAS [Generally Recognised As Safe] status). 

EU/UK and other non-US markets: To be labelled ‘gluten-free’ products must contain no more than 20 ppm of gluten. We can’t currently guarantee that our products have that low a gluten content. That said, we do have strict requirements regarding the purity of the oats we use and we're careful to control and minimise gluten cross-contamination as much as possible. 

USA: Our U.S range is made with Canadian gluten free oats and all our packs are certified ‘Gluten Free’. 

Countries vary in their guidance regarding the suitability of plant-based drinks to children.

The general recommendations regarding at what age these are suitable as a main drink are country specific:

UK/Sweden: Oatly plain fortified drinks can be used in cooking for most babies over 6 months of age.​ Usually, they are suitable as a main drink from 1 year of age.  

The NHS  advice is “You can give your child unsweetened calcium-fortified milk alternatives, such as soya, oat or almond drinks, from the age of 1 as part of a healthy, balanced diet”. 

If in doubt, please contact your professional organisation. 

EU/UK: Most products, including all unflavoured drinks are manufactured without any added sugar or sweeteners. The sugar found in these products, about 3.5 g/100 ml, is primarily maltose and is derived from the starch found in our oats. It gets broken down by our enzymatic process (designed to transform oats into a liquid form), using the same type of enzymes as the human body when converting starch to sugar during digestion. Interestingly, whilst sugars are created, the caloric/energy content is unaffected.

The maltose content of our oat drink is similar to the lactose content of cow's milk. Sugars are shown on the nutrition label.

EFSA recently considered the tolerable upper intake level for dietary sugars. In this report it categorized plant-based drinks as core foods, along with milk and dairy. Furthermore, these core foods were not regarded as needing dietary restriction, unlike other non-core, sugar containing foods which have been linked to poor health outcomes.

USA: Whilst our US drinks are manufactured in a similar way to our other markets, in particular without any added sugar, FDA guidance on sugar labelling requires that any sugar created during a product’s production process should be categorised as 'added', which is the only reason we have “added sugar” on the nutrition labels of our unflavoured drinks in the USA (about 7 g sugar/ 240 mL cup).

You can read more about this process here.

ALL MARKETS: Our flavoured drinks, chocolate and vanilla, vanilla custard, flavoured oatgurt and ice cream contain added sugar. However, added sugar is kept to the minimum amount required to achieve the desired taste. 

Oatly products also provide a number of other important nutrients and can be enjoyed as part of a healthy, balanced diet.

“No Sugar” or “Unsweetened” options are now available in some markets. Where:

• “No Sugar” – has a similar amount of carbohydrate as regular oat drink, but zero sugars
• “Unsweetened”- has both a lower amount of carbohydrate and zero sugars

In many global markets Oatly products are fortified with vitamin D2 which is suitable for vegetarians and vegans. The evidence regarding whether vitamin D2 and D3 are bioequivalent is inconclusive. However, vitamin D2 is considered a good alternative to vitamin D3. 

Whilst markets differ, our drinks (except our organic drinks as current legislation does not allow this*) and our Oatgurt are typically fortified with vitamin D, containing 1.1 µg/100 ml (USA: 3.6 µg per 240 mL cup). On many markets our drinks and gurts are fortified with other nutrients including calcium, iodine, riboflavin and vitamin B12 (and in the USA vitamin A and DHA).  

The vitamin D2 is derived from yeast in all markets except USA, where it is derived from plants.

UK: There are clear recommendations regarding vitamin D supplements. 

*except in Sweden where organic drinks may also be fortified with vitamin D.