Plant-based dairy alternatives are commonplace in supermarkets these days. So too are their conventional dairy counterparts. What is much less common, but attracting more and more attention, is a new category aimed at bringing the best of both: hybrid dairy.<\/p>\n
Innovators have attempted to build out this nascent sector in recent years, and not all successfully. But now a big-name in dairy is having a crack: Kerry Dairy Consumer Goods – owned by Kerry Dairy Ireland – has developed a range of blended oat and dairy products it’s playfully coined ‘Smug Dairy’.<\/p>\n
“The name Smug Dairy, whilst slightly tongue in cheek, stems from the feeling we hope consumers get when they choose and discover this new product,” Victoria Southern, strategy, marketing and innovation director at Kerry Dairy Consumer Foods told FoodNavigator.<\/p>\n
The range spans milk, cheese, and butter alternatives, with each product containing a different proportion of dairy and plant-based ingredients.<\/p>\n
The Smug Dairy Oat & Dairy Blended Block Butter contains 65% dairy and 35% plant-based ingredients; the Spreadable Butter 50% dairy; Cheddar 61% dairy; and Milk 75% dairy.<\/p>\n
Zooming in on the plant-based element reveals different ingredients and micronutrients depending on the product. The plant-based ingredients for Smug Dairy Blended Oat & Dairy Milk include oat drink, chicory root fibre, calcium, carbonate, salt, stabiliser, vitamin D2, B2, iodine and vitamin B12.<\/p>\n
The Smug Dairy Blended Oat & Dairy Milk contains milk, rapeseed oil, oat drink (water, gluten free oat flour, salt, fava bean protein, vitamin B12), colour, vitamin E, vitamin A and D.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
“We take traditional dairy and blend this with oats, and we have worked hard to develop products which are high quality and have tested these products at length with consumers,” explained Southern.<\/p>\n
The launch, at least initially, concerns the UK only. But this may change. The marketing and innovation director said the business is excited to be at the ‘forefront’ of a brand-new category for dairy, and is already working on a pipeline of innovation – both in terms of new products and the distribution of the current range, including further geographical expansion opportunities.<\/p>\n
From a price perspective, the Smug Dairy range is a premium product, coming in at a higher price point than conventional dairy (Kerry’s Dairygold spreadable butter sells for €7.91 per kg at Tesco in the Republic of Ireland, whereas Smug Dairy Blended Oat & Dairy Spreadable Butter sells for around £9.34 [€10.87] per kg in the UK).<\/p>\n
It’s also priced higher than some other plant-based dairy alternatives. Kerry’s Pure Dairy Free Butter Spread retails for £4.30 (€5.00) per kg in the UK, compared to Smug Dairy Blended Oat & Dairy Spreadable’s £9.34.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The innovation potential in hybrid dairy is obvious. With very few players operating in the nascent category, it’s wide open for newcomers to take a piece of the plant-based and dairy blend pie.<\/p>\n