The role of dairy and plant based dairy alternatives in sustainable diets

Sustainable diets that are nutritionally adequate, environmentally sound, economically viable and socially and culturally acceptable are gaining increasing attention. The focus has long been on the role of meat and its association with high environmental pressures, especially greenhouse gas emissions, and its detrimental health effects at high consumption levels. Much less attention has been paid to the role of dairy products in sustainable diets. 

There is currently a rise in plantbased dairy alternatives, e.g. drinks, yogurt-like products, spreads, ice-cream etc. made of soy, legumes, seeds, nuts or cereals. These have potentially lower negative impacts than dairy products but different nutritional profiles, which raises concerns about their role as replacements or complements to dairy products in sustainable diets. These concerns form the background to this report. 

The purpose of this report is to describe the state of current research on the broad topic of sustainable diets, dairy and plant-based dairy alternatives, as a basis for development of a research roadmap to address this research question.