As consumers look to fuel their bodies with healthy products, the consumer packaged goods (CPG) market is seeing dairy alternatives as a segment that could fulfill their demands. In its April 2015 report titled “Dairy and Dairy Alternative Beverage Trends,” Packaged Facts estimates that U.S. retail for the category was $23.8 billion in 2014.

Recently, plant-based dairy alternatives such as almond milk and coconut milk are taking their success mainstream. Although soy milk has been an option available at major coffeehouses for years, only recently did almond and coconut milk begin making an appearance.

If major coffee chains are any indication, plant-based dairy alternatives such as almond milk and coconut milk are taking their success mainstream.

The WhiteWave Foods Co., Broomfield, Colo., announced that it has agreed to acquire So Delicious Dairy Free, Eugene, Ore., from its existing shareholders, led by Wasserstein & Co., for approximately $195 million in cash.

Although cow’s milk has long been associated with good health, it has experienced gradual sales declines in the past two years as prices fluctuated and consumers avoided fat, calories and added sugars, according to Chicago-based Mintel’s April 2014 report “Milk, Creamers and Non-Dairy Milk – US.”

As consumers search for that healthy, quenching beverage, non-dairy drinks seem poised to fulfill that need state, experts note.

 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.  

 Soymilk continues to be the most popular dairy alternative beverage today, Virginia Lee, senior research analyst at Chicago-based Euromonitor International, told Beverage Industry in its November issue.