This week, Milkadamia, identified for its vary of macadamia-based milks, introduced its first oat milk. Nevertheless, this isn’t simply any oat milk; the corporate is introducing Flat Pack oat milk, that are printed sheets of plant-based milk which are designed to be rehydrated in water in a single day or blended for an instantaneous beverage.
In accordance with the corporate, these sheets are created by printing oat milk paste onto flat sheets utilizing a proprietary 2D printing course of. Every bundle accommodates eight of those light-weight sheets, lowering each packaging and weight.
However why print milk as a substitute of transport it as a ready-to-drink liquid? Though plant-based milk is extra environmentally pleasant than dairy, ready-to-drink drinks nonetheless have a big carbon footprint and require substantial packaging to achieve shoppers. Analysis from the Barcelona Institute for International Well being highlights that the local weather affect of bottled water, for instance, could be as much as 3,500 instances greater than that of faucet water. Milkadamia claims that their printed milk sheets will scale back packaging by 94% and product weight by 85%.
Milkadamia isn’t the primary to enterprise into printed drinks, and even printed milk. Veganz, as an example, patented a 2D-printed milk product final 12 months and started distributing it quickly after. Given the similarities between Veganz’s product and Milkadamia’s oat milk, it raises the query of whether or not Milkadamia is licensing this expertise from Veganz. (Editor replace: Milkadamia confirmed through e-mail that they’re utilizing the identical expertise as Veganz and are the primary to introduce flat-pack milk within the US).
One other firm within the printed beverage area is SmartCups, which prints power drink concentrates straight into cups, permitting shoppers to create their drinks by merely including water. This strategy to printed drinks appears to be gaining extra traction than in-home beverage printing—an idea that Cana, an organization that tried to promote it, struggled with earlier than going out of enterprise final 12 months.
Milkadamia’s new Flat Pack printed oat milk is ready to be obtainable on-line and in shops beginning January 2025.
