Buyer's guide to non-dairy milk

This is a free buyer's guide from Ethical Consumer, the UK's leading alternative consumer organisation. We research the social and environmental records of companies.

More detailed versions of this guide are available. See the links at the bottom of the page.

Best Buys as of September 2006

As our ratings are constantly updated, it is possible that company ratings on the ethiscore website may have changed since this report was written.

Plamil, Oat Supreme, Sojasun, Sunrise and Tiger Milk all come out best.

Brand	Rating
Plamil organic soya milk [O,A]	17
Oat Supreme oat milk [A]	15
Sojasun organic soya milk [O,A]	15
Sunrise organic soya milk [O,A]	15
Sunrise soya milk [A]	14
Tiger White milk alternative [A]	14
Granovita organic soya milk [O,A]	13.5
Granose organic soya milk [A,O]	12.5
Granovita soya milk [A]	12.5
Lima organic rice, oat or soya milk [O,A]	12.5
Rice Dream organic rice milk [O,A]	12.5
So Good soya milk [A]	12
Granose soya milk [A]	11.5
Rice Dream rice milk with calcium [A]	11.5
White Wave soya milk [A]	11.5
Alpro organic rice milk [O,A]	10
Alpro organic soya milk [O,A]	10
Provamel Bio organic soya milk [O,A]	9.5
Alpro soya milk [A]	9
Soya Soleil soya milk [A]	8.5

The higher the rating the more ethical the brand. This whole scorecard was last updated from our database on 14 October 2009 but some individual company ratings may have changed since then. Up to the minute information can be seen by subscribers using Ethiscore.
Learn more about our ratings.

Non-dairy milk

In 1999, only the products of giant agrifood business Archer Daniels Midland, which makes the Granose and White Wave brands, stood out as the bad buys. All the other companies on the table were smaller firms with largely clear records.

Consolidation in the market means that the choices are no longer so clear-cut. The purchase of brands like Rice Dream and Lima by Hain Celestial and the growth of Provamel/Alpro’s owner Vandemoortele means that these health food companies have started to pick up marks for animal rights criticisms like selling meat and fish.

In addition, this time we have looked at the supply chain policies of the companies, since the sourcing of soya has been the subject of increasing social and environmental controversy. Unfortunately, few of the companies covered come out well in terms of their environmental reporting or implementation of supply chain policies, suggesting that even companies with strong ethical focuses on veganism or health are not engaging publicly with their wider responsibilities. Plamil was one exception, being a small company with a commitment to premium prices for producers, while Oat Supreme, Tiger White and Sojasun came out well because their raw materials came from European sources.

Sorry. No downloadable research report available for this product.