Tirlán has launched oat drinks produced from Irish oats in the United States. The Truly Gluten Free range has an original oat drink and a barista oat drink. These are known as oat milk in the US.
The drink is produced from Irish oats which are gluten free, having gone through strict management and inspections from seed to bottle on the farm and in processing.
The product shows on its packaging that the oats are grown on 110 Irish farms that are located within 80 miles of the oat mill. The oats have a low carbon footprint, which Tirlán is currently working on verifying.
Research, which Tirlán worked on with Teagasc, placed the average carbon footprint of Tirlán oats at 207kg CO2e/t. When adjusted for drying, this brings the footprint to 232kg CO2e/t.
When Tirlán growers chopped straw from these crops and incorporated it back into the soil, many of the crops were actually estimated to be carbon neutral because as much carbon was stored as was produced.
The oat products result in zero waste, as anything left over after milling goes into animal feed or for composting.
Truly range
The oat range is the latest addition to the Truly brand in the US. Truly Grass Fed Butter and Cheese are already available and both are produced from Irish milk.
At its recent grain quality awards, Tirlán representatives explained that many of its customers who purchase dairy products also purchase oat-based products and that it works well to be able to sell the two together, as the customer does not need to go elsewhere for one or the other.
The oat drink was also launched in China just a few months ago. Growing markets is a good thing for Irish farmers, as the area of the crop grown may need to expand.
Increase in gluten-free oat area
In recent years, Tirlán has increased its gluten-free oats area. Tirlán harvests and transports all gluten-free oats for the farmers with its fleet of combines, chaser bins and lorries to ensure that there is no contamination of product. The oats are milled in Tirlán’s oat mill in Portlaoise, Co Laois.
Growers receive a premium price for those oats. In the harvest of 2023, growers were paid €30/t over feed wheat, €40/t over feed barley and €50/t over feed oats prices.
Oat milk is the term used legally in the US for these products. Oat drinks is the term which needs to be used in the EU.
You can hear more on Tirlán's oats on this episode of the Tillage Podcast.
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