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Non-milk alternatives could put milk under the same pressure butter did from margarine 30 years ago, the chief executive of the National Dairy Council has warned.
Confusion among young consumers, a lack of regard for science and growing anti-dairy sentiment are combining to put milk consumption worldwide under pressure, Zoe Kavanagh warned at dairy day in Punchestown.
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“The industry is dealing with a new-age consumer who does not live by granny’s wisdom of everything in moderation,” Kavanagh explained.
“Now we have a millennial consumer for whom image trumps science, which is a real challenge.
“Their sources of information are social media channels, where they are bombarded with a whole range of information, much of it from unqualified sources.”
Kavanagh said there was no point wheeling out doctors or scientists to tell millennials that dairy is good for them because they pay more attention to the message if it comes from a tall, skinny, beautiful and attractive person.
She warned that if the industry relies on the traditional marketing of milk as part of a wholesome scene with the family all eating cereal together in the morning, “we are sleepwalking into a radical consumption decline”.
Instead, the milk marketing must be relevant to millennials who eat out in cafes and restaurants and “neophiles” who want to try trendy new things.
Focus group research by the National Dairy Council into the 20- to 29-year-old female age group has shown that they don’t watch traditional TV or listen to radio and only read limited print material.
Instead, their food information comes from online sources, social media and native streaming.
Irish Country Magazine editor Jennifer Stevens said that much of that information comes from the US.
“For several years now, these women have been watching horrific documentaries on Netflix like Scary Dairy.
“They are getting a lot of their information from the US, where practices are very different to here in Ireland – and in some cases they are horrific – and they are beginning to believe that’s the case here,” she warned.
However, Kavanagh said that young consumers are not lost and they can be reclaimed by the dairy industry, by talking to them through modern channels, like social media, pop-up events and celebrity ambassadors for the industry.
Under European legislation, milk produced by animals is now a protected term which cannot be used to describe substances that are produced from nuts and other plants.
Drinks made from plants such as soy, cashew, hemp, coconut, rice and pea cannot, under European law, be called milks.
The only alternative beverage that managed to slip through the net is almond milk.
This secured a derogation from the European rules because the term almond moisturising milk has been widely used for years in the beauty industry.
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