Analysis of Eight Types of Plant-based Milk Alternatives from the United States Market for Target Minerals and Trace Elements

A wide variety of commercial plant-based foods that are marketed and sold as alternatives for milk (plant-based milk alternatives or PBMAs) are available to consumers. In this study, PBMAs from the United States (n=85) were subjected to analysis for target minerals (magnesium, phosphorus, selenium, and zinc) to compare their variability across PBMA types, brands, and production lots. Samples were also screened for the environmental contaminant elements arsenic, cadmium, and lead. The eight PBMA types sampled were produced from almond, cashew, coconut, hemp, oat, pea, rice, and soy. Elemental analysis was conducted using microwave-assisted acid digestion followed by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. The results showed that pea PBMAs contained the highest mean amounts of phosphorus, selenium, and zinc, while soy PBMAs were highest in magnesium. Mean amounts of minerals were lower than those found in milk for the majority of PBMA types. There was significant variation (P<0.05) in amounts of minerals across the majority of product brands. The amounts of phosphorus and magnesium varied across production lots (P<0.05), but the absolute value of these differences was low. Total arsenic was highest in rice PBMAs; amounts of cadmium and lead across PBMAs were generally found at low or non-quantifiable amounts. These results underscore the importance of generating analytical data on the elemental composition of products within the rapidly growing category of PBMA.

Market Basket Survey of the Micronutrients Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Calcium, and Potassium in Eight Types of Commercial Plant-Based Milk Alternatives from United States Markets

We performed a market basket survey of plant-based milk alternatives (PBMAs) from the US market for vitamin A, vitamin D, calcium, and potassium to identify the amount and variability of these micronutrients across various PBMAs. The PBMA types included in this analysis were almond, cashew, coconut, hemp, oat, pea, rice, and soy (n=90 total product units). Analyses for vitamin A (as retinyl palmitate), vitamin D2/D3, and minerals were performed using high-performance liquid chromatography, liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry, respectively. A majority of PBMA types had significant differences (P<0.05) in the amounts of target micronutrients across brands. The coefficient of variation (%CV) for micronutrient concentrations within one lot of a single brand ranged from 4.1-42.2% for vitamin A, 1.5-44.1% for vitamin D, 1.7%-37.6% for calcium, and 0.7%-39.0% for potassium. The variability of these micronutrients should be taken into account when considering the nutritional value of PBMAs.