Dairy products or milk products, also known as lacticinia, are food products made from milk. The most common dairy animals are cow, water buffalo, nanny goat, and ewe. Dairy products include common grocery store food items in the Western world such as yogurt, cheese, milk and butter. A facility that produces dairy products is known as a dairy. Dairy products are consumed worldwide to varying degrees. Some people avoid some or all dairy products either because of lactose intolerance, veganism, or other health reasons or beliefs.
Vegetarian cuisine is based on food that meets vegetarian standards by not including meat and animal tissue products.
A meat alternative or meat substitute, is a food product made from vegetarian or vegan ingredients, eaten as a replacement for meat. Meat alternatives typically approximate qualities of specific types of meat, such as mouthfeel, flavor, appearance, or chemical characteristics. Plant- and fungus-based substitutes are frequently made with soy, but may also be made from wheat gluten as in seitan, pea protein as in the Beyond Burger, or mycoprotein as in Quorn.
Soy milk, also known as soya milk or soymilk, is a plant-based drink produced by soaking and grinding soybeans, boiling the mixture, and filtering out remaining particulates. It is a stable emulsion of oil, water, and protein. Its original form is an intermediate product of the manufacture of tofu. Originating in China, it became a common beverage in Europe and North America in the latter half of the 20th century, especially as production techniques were developed to give it a taste and consistency more closely resembling that of dairy milk. Soy milk may be used as a substitute for dairy milk by individuals who are vegan or lactose intolerant.
In kashrut, the dietary laws of Judaism, pareve is a classification of edible substances that contain neither dairy nor meat ingredients. Food in this category includes all items that grow from the ground, fish, eggs, and non-biological edible items.
Plant milk is a plant beverage with a color resembling that of milk. Plant milks are non-dairy beverages made from a water-based plant extract for flavoring and aroma. Plant milks are consumed as alternatives to dairy milk, and may provide a creamy mouthfeel.
A milk substitute is any substance that resembles milk and can be used in the same ways as milk. Such substances may be variously known as non-dairy beverage, nut milk, grain milk, legume milk, mock milk and alternative milk.
A non-dairy creamer, commonly also called tea whitener or coffee whitener or else just creamer, is a liquid or granular product intended to substitute for milk or cream as an additive to coffee, tea, hot chocolate or other beverages. They do not contain lactose and therefore are commonly described as being non-dairy products, although many contain casein, a milk-derived protein.
Alpro is a European company based in Wevelgem, Belgium, that markets organic and non-organic, non-genetically modified, plant-based products, such as foods and drinks made from soy, almonds, hazelnuts, cashew, rice, oats or coconut. Alpro employs over 1,200 people in Europe and has three production facilities in Belgium, France and the United Kingdom. Alpro markets its products in Europe and beyond with the majority of its business in Europe.
Soy yogurt, also referred to as soya yogurt, soygurt or yofu, is a yogurt-like product made with soy milk.
Cheese analogues are products used as culinary replacements for cheese. They are usually products made by blending cheaper fats or proteins and used in convenience foods. The category includes vegan cheeses as well as some dairy-containing products that do not qualify as true cheeses, such as processed cheese. These foods may be intended as replacements for cheese, as with vegan products, or as imitations, as in the case of products used for salad bars and pizza-making, which are generally intended to be mistaken for real cheese, but have properties such as different melting points or lower costs that make them attractive to businesses.
MimicCreme was a brand of vegan imitation cream based on nuts and made without lactose, soy, or gluten. It was certified as pareve kosher. First produced commercially in January 2007 in Albany, New York, by Green Rabbit LLC, MimicCreme was primarily marketed toward vegans as an alternative to dairy products. The company website indicates that the company closed in November 2013 due to no longer having access to an appropriate production facility.
Vegetarian bacon, also referred to as veggie bacon, vegan bacon, vegan rashers, vacon, or facon, is a plant-based version of bacon.
Vegan cheese is a category of non-dairy, plant-based cheese analogues. Vegan cheeses range from soft fresh cheeses to aged and cultured hard grateable cheeses like plant-based Parmesan. The defining characteristic of vegan cheese is the exclusion of all animal products.
Follow Your Heart is a vegan and vegetarian food company that began in 1970 as a restaurant in Canoga Park, California. In 1977, they began selling Vegenaise, an egg-free mayonnaise substitute whose name is a portmanteau of vegetarian and mayonnaise. The company now also produces other lines of vegan food, such as vegan cheeses, salad dressings, and VeganEgg.
Perfect Day, Inc. is a food technology startup company based in Berkeley, California, that has developed processes of creating dairy proteins, including casein and whey, by fermentation in microbiota, specifically from fungi in bioreactors, instead of extraction from bovine milk.
William Roy Shurtleff also known as Bill Shurtleff is an American researcher and writer about soy foods. Shurtleff and his former wife Akiko Aoyagi have written and published consumer-oriented cookbooks, handbooks for small- and large-scale commercial production, histories, and bibliographies of various soy foods. These books introduced soy foods such as tofu, tempeh, and miso on a wide scale to non-Asian Westerners, and are largely responsible for the establishment of non-Asian soy food manufacturers in the West beginning in the late 1970s. In 1980, Lorna Sass wrote in The New York Times, "The two people most responsible for catapulting tofu from the wok into the frying pan are William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi.” In 1995, Suzanne Hamlin wrote in The New York Times, “At the turn of the century there were two tofu suppliers in the United States. Today there are more than 200 tofu manufacturers...and tofu can be found in nearly every supermarket."
