Milk Made from Peas?

There are many alternatives to cow’s milk, such as almond and soy milks, however, there is now a different option for people and it’s a milk made from peas. Ripple Foods has created legume-derived milk, which contains protein from yellow peas. The company is hoping to compete with the dairy industry by making the milk from pea proteins.

Pea Milk?

The milk is made from yellow peas that are dried and then split in half by hand or via a machine.
Yellow peas are thought to be easy to grow because they get all the moisture needed from rainfall and they can produce their own nitrogen from the air, meaning they don’t need to be fertilized. This eliminates the need for expensive and polluting fertilizers that other food sources use to make milk-alternatives, such as soy and almonds.

When speaking to TechCrunch’s, Neil Renniger, one of the co-founders of Ripple Foods, he stated, “We wanted to use crops that were more sustainable and had a better carbon footprint and water footprint.”
This is not the first time a company has tried to make milk from pea protein. Mr. Renniger said, “What they find when they do is that their almond milk tastes like pea soup.”

He went on to say, “Protein, by its very nature, is tasteless. What we realized is that if you strip the protein away from the color molecules and flavor molecules, we could end up with a base that was tasteless and we could formulate on top of that.”
On top of the pea protein base, the milk also contains, sunflower oil, cane sugar, algai oil, minerals and vitamins.

Dairy Milk Production:

Dairy production leaves behind a gigantic carbon footprint. One liter of milk requires 1,000 liters of water to produce.

In comparison with pea milk, Ripple’s product requires only 2.25 liters of water.

Climate warming gases such as methane are emitted through manure, feed production, milk processing and even when cows burp. A farm with 2,500 dairy cows produces the same amount of waste as a city of 411,000 people.

Nutritional Content of Different Types of Milk

Dairy whole milk per 100ml has 64 calories, contains 32 grams of protein, has 2.3 grams of saturated fat and costs around $3.99 (US) per gallon.

Unsweetened soy milk per 100ml has 13 calories, 0.4 grams of protein, has 0.1 grams of saturated fat and costs around $2.29 per ½ gallon.

Soy milk per 100ml has 40 calories, 3.0 protein, and 0.3 grams of saturated fat and costs around $2.29 per ½ gallon.

Ripple milk per 100ml has 41 calories, 3.3 grams of protein, and 0.2 grams of saturate fat and costs around $4.54 per ½ gallon.

Conclusion:

The combination of ingredients in pea milk means it has half the sugar of dairy milk and one-sixth the amount of saturated fats. While the milk is nutritionally sound, it is quite costly, but it is a greener option for those who wish to purchase an environmentally friendly product.