While plant-based milk products flood the market, for consumers, dairy-free yoghurt options are in short supply. Having unlocked a silky-smooth texture and great flavours to boot, Swedish company, the Green Dairy, possess a recipe for a nutritious fava bean and oat yoghurt that will fill a gap in the alternatives-to-dairy market.
It is estimated that 68% of the population has lactose malabsorption, yet the nutrients found in animal milk remain an important part of our diet. Until recently, the non-dairy market focused on plant-based milk and cheese equivalents, offering few alternatives to other milk products, like yoghurt. Enter: the Green Dairy’s vegan yoghurt.
One reason for this scarcity is that plant-based yoghurt is notoriously hard to make; how do you replicate the flavours and textures created during milk’s natural fermentation process?
Two small companies from Sweden and Estonia, the Green Dairy and TFTAK, set out to overcome this challenge and now have a recipe for a delicious fava bean and oat yoghurt that rivals natural yoghurt in nutrients, taste and viscosity.
Karolina Östbring, a food engineer at the Green Dairy and specialist in extracting plant proteins, explains the nutritional value behind combining fava beans and oats in its yoghurt: “We need nine essential amino acids in our food. And with these nine amino acids, the body can produce up to 22,000 different proteins. Alone, cereals and legumes fall short, but combined, the body acquires the same amino acid levels that are present in dairy and meat.”
What makes the Green Dairy’s yoghurt recipe so good?
Having worked with soy and oat mixtures for its plant-based milk and ice cream products for years, this time the Green Dairy chose to combine fava beans and oats to create a yoghurt base with a great texture enhanced by the fava beans’ natural viscosity. “By combining these two crops, the fava beans add characteristics oats lack”, explains Östbring.
Finding the correct balance of base ingredients initially proved difficult; TFTAK in Estonia tested all ratios of fava bean to oat, landing on 80% fava bean and 20% oat as ideal for maximising amino acid presence.
The flavours harmonised by chance, and Östbring describes a breakthrough moment when the ratio of ingredients hit the sweet spot: “The aromas were overlapping and working together in a really unexpected way, where the oats were balancing out the bitterness of the fava beans”.
After defining a base, the Green Dairy added bacteria culture so the ingredients self-flavour in a natural fermentation process. Finally, the Green Dairy ensured the yoghurt contains sufficient vitamins, calcium, fat and stabilisers.
Östbring believes the natural processes used to create the Green Dairy’s yoghurt are unlike competitors’ methods, which add starch (e.g., potato or cornstarch) to achieve a more viscous texture rather than relying on natural fermentation. By optimising the protein levels in the oat and fava bean base, the bacteria culture creates a natural gel without needing starch additives.
The advantages of introducing fava beans into a vegan yoghurt recipe do not end at their nutritional value; using fava beans in our food also supports sustainable farming practices at local and regional level.
Fava beans are well-suited to Scandinavia’s colder climates and their crops enrich soil, making them ideal for incorporating into crop rotation. But since fava beans do not feature in a typical Scandinavian diet, most produce is sold off for animal feed at lower prices. With fava beans included in the Green Dairy’s yoghurt recipe, farmers might expect better profit margins.
For the moment, the Green Dairy is championing fava beans, but Östbring highlights the evolving nature of the food industry: “We are facing a plant protein shift where everyone should decrease their meat intake and eat more plant produce. We are continually coming up with new products that have never existed before, exploring what is possible to achieve with different plant ingredients.”
With Estonian Eurostars project partners, TFTAK, Green Dairy analysed and carried out protocol, pilot and factory trials for manufacturing its yoghurt. Östbring explains how it was an easy decision to cooperate with the Estonian company: “I have never seen a pilot plant as amazing as theirs. They have so much equipment and know how to use it. We had not managed to find those competencies within Sweden.”
TFTAK piloted the production of 20 to 100 litres of yoghurt, developing a model that the Green Dairy could scale up to produce 3,000 litres with minor adjustments to parameters like pressure and temperature. After first struggling with consistency, the team landed on a process that results in yoghurt not too thick for the machines to distribute yet not too liquid to package.
Now, the Green Dairy are establishing a stable manufacturing process and beginning consumer testing for natural, vanilla and strawberry flavours with the aim of commercialising its yoghurt in the Nordic market in September 2025.
From its foundation in 2005, it is impressive to see how far the Green Dairy has come. Its first ever product was soy ice cream, followed by an oat milk beverage in 2017 and a whipped cream launching in September 2024. Today, the Green Dairy employees 70 people and its facilities can manufacture and package up to 500,000 litres of milk an hour, which is then sold around the world.
The model of the Green Dairy’s success is as a production company, selling its non-dairy produce to supermarkets or companies who then market it to consumers. The Green Dairy’s pervasiveness means if you have ever drunk a plant-based milk, it likely originated from the Swedish company’s factories. In addition, Sweden’s largest food exporter, IKEA, owns 51% of the Green Dairy’s shares and markets its non-dairy ice cream internationally.
Formulated products, like yoghurt and cheese, are far more profitable for dairies than milk, and this is no different for plant-based dairy products. Since 2005, the Green Dairy has been on a quest to mass produce a host of sustainable non-dairy products.
Östbring says that a plant-based yoghurt is certainly not the end of the Green Dairy’s work, and the company plans to continue developing new products for lactose intolerant and vegan consumers.
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