4 Vegan Milk Powder Substitutes
What is vegan milk powder?
Vegan milk powder is a plant based dried milk, typically made by dehydrating milk from sources such as soy, coconut, rice or oat.
What's the point of vegan milk powder?
Vegan milk powder offers an ideal alternative to dairy milk powder when a plant-based option is needed.
Additionally, vegan milk powder can provide a more sustainable alternative to regular store bought plant milk. This is because it uses less packaging vs. carton milk, produces fewer transport emissions and minimises food waste due to its naturally longer shelf life. Check out our full article which explains why it's a more sustainable option.
4 Most Popular Vegan Milk Powder Alternatives
Coconut milk powder
Coconut milk powder is a common powdered milk alternative primarily used in cooking due to its creamy nature and widespread use in Asian cuisine.
Pros:
- Affordable, from £1.90 per litre when mixed.
- Gluten free & non-GMO.
- Good option for cooking.
Cons:
- Very high in fat (over 50% fat).
- Doesn’t dissolve particularly well, so not ideal for other milk applications beyond cooking.
- Not the most sustainable vegan milk powder - typically made in Asia.
Brands: Island Source Coconut Milk Powder (Amazon £18.99, 1kg)
Oat Milk Powder
Oat milk is the UKs favourite plant milk due to its creaminess, delicious taste and sustainability credentials. But we are biased...
Pros:
- Good sustainability credentials – oats grown in Europe.
- Best tasting, and dissolves well.
- Good nutritional profile, high in fibre, no added sugar.
- Best value, from £1.37 per litre.
Cons:
- Lower in protein vs. other vegan milk powders.
Brands: Overherd (£10.99, 800g)
Rice milk powder
Rice milk powder is typically made from dehydrating rice milk and is not as common as other vegan milk powders but offers a good nutritional profile.
- Free from allergens.
- Organic product.
- Good nutritional profile.
Cons:
- Low in protein vs. other vegan milk powders.
- Not as affordable as others at £2.80 per litre.
- A little watery.
Brands: Natures Finest (Amazon £6.99, 250g)
Soy milk powder
Another popular choice is soy milk powder. Soy milk is the UKs second most popular plant milk, and thus it offers a powdered variant consumers may already be familiar with. However, it generally scores lower in taste tests, and there are some concerns surrounding the sustainability of soy farming.
Pros:
- High in protein.
- Already popular plant milk.
Cons:
- Expensive, from £6.50 per litre.
- Sustainability concerns surrounding soy farming.
- Relatively high fat content.
Brands: Hye Foods (Amazon £12.99, 200g)
How sustainable is vegan milk powder?
Vegan milk powder is significantly more sustainable than dairy milk powder due to the large carbon footprint of dairy farming. We wrote a blog post which goes into more detail about the environmental impact of plant milks vs. dairy.
Vegan milk powders are also more sustainable than regular plant milks because they are typically around 10 times lighter and smaller, so require less packaging and produce fewer transport emissions. Additionally vegan milk powder has a naturally longer shelf life and so food waste is minimised (no off milk!).