Dairy alternative drinks are becoming so mainstream that they might soon deserve their own name, says David Sprinkle, research director and publisher of Packaged Facts, Rockville, Md. As opposed to an industry term that links directly to the dairy category, he suggests something more along the lines of “plant-based beverages.”
“[It] does not trip off the tongue, [and] I don’t see consumers picking that up, but conceptually that might be a better way of looking at it,” he says.