Gabriel Morrison hadn\u2019t touched dairy milk for a decade until he read the ingredients label on his cheap carton of oat milk.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s [so much] canola oil and you imagine that in your glass, and imagine discovering that much olive oil, you\u2019re like, that\u2019s actually really gross,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just like, \u2018ooft, I should stop this\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old cinematographer had exclusively drunk soy, then almond, then oat milks since 2015 but had started worrying about processed foods \u2013 despite expert reassurance<\/a>.<\/p>\n In early 2025, with his housemate already buying cheaper dairy, he gave the old classic another look.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m looking at the ingredients and it\u2019s 100% cow\u2019s milk \u2013 this seems better than sugar, canola oil, vegetable oil and a whole lot of other random stuff,\u201d Morrison says.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s probably way worse stuff in my life. It\u2019s just one of those many choices I make every day and I\u2019m feeling slightly better about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Milk is back on the menu after a long decline, as shoppers search for supermarket discounts, save 50c on their coffees and pick up new diet trends.<\/p>\n Plant milks appear past their peak as dairy businesses report surging sales of lactose-free products and a boom in protein demand.<\/p>\n Back to basics<\/p>\n Morrison had been one of millions of Australians to fall out of love with dairy over a decade of rising incomes and environmental awareness.<\/p>\n Australians cut back from drinking 100 litres of milk a year in 2015 to just 85 by 2025, according to Dairy Australia.<\/p>\n Soy, then almond, then oat milk consumption grew rapidly over the same period. Riverina Fresh, a cafe dairy supplier, saw plant milks surge from less than 10% of sales to 25% by 2023, according to its executive chairman, Craig Shapiro.<\/p>\n In inner-city cafes, where customers were typically more focused on sustainability, that mix hit 50%, Shapiro says. Research has found <\/a>cow\u2019s milk production requires more water and generates more emissions than plant milks, while cases of animal cruelty<\/a> encouraged consumers to drop dairy.<\/p>\n Over the past four years, though, dairy has edged back share and plant milks have lost momentum. Cost-of-living pressures saw shoppers cut their spending at cafes, swapping to coffees at home,<\/a> and buying more milk to match, Shapiro says.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re buying a dairy-based coffee versus a plant-based coffee and it\u2019s an extra 50c to a dollar \u2026 maybe that is the tipping point,\u201d Shapiro says.<\/p>\n While milk prices rose more than 20% in the past four years, they have stabilised over the last year, says Michael Harvey, senior analyst for Rabobank.<\/p>\n \u201cThe cost of all food has gone up, so consumers go back to basics,\u201d Harvey says.<\/p>\n Supermarket milk sales shrunk in 2023 and 2024 but returned to growth over 2025, up 1.1% to just over 1.4bn litres \u2013 nearly two-thirds of which was cheaper homebrand milk, Dairy Australia has found.<\/p>\n Australian sales of lactose-free a2 milk grew nearly 10% in the second half of 2025 compared with the same period of 2024. Photograph: Bloomberg\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Plant milk producer revenues had doubled to $600m annually from 2015 to 2022 but have since gone backwards, according to IBISWorld analysis. Milklab, the Australian plant and dairy milk brand, says the industry can keep growing as fans still enjoy the taste and variety<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re about, \u2018I want an oat matcha\u2019, [not] \u2018I\u2019m going to buy this drink and I\u2019m going to substitute dairy\u2019,\u201d says Michael Perich, the chief executive of Milklab\u2019s owner Noumi.<\/p>\n But sales are growing at a slower pace as health trends push shoppers back to \u201cnatural\u201d products such as cow\u2019s milk, he says.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are going back to meat. People are going back to dairy. [Some] consumers are a bit like, \u2018well, I want less ingredients\u2019,\u201d Perich says.<\/p>\n An easing enthusiasm for vegan diets combined with scepticism around ultra-processed foods<\/a> has encouraged shoppers back towards wholefoods<\/a> globally.<\/p>\n Research has consistently found dairy milk is health-neutral and soy milk typically matches it in protein and calcium levels, says Fiona Willer, the CEO of Dietitians Australia.<\/p>\n Canola and other seed oils added to almond and oat milks are also fine, Willer says, regardless of the worries raised by the Trump administration health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has promoted milk and unprocessed foods in his diet guidelines<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the US, milk consumption had been falling on a per-person basis but steadied by 2024, government data suggests, with sales data suggesting the category boomed in 2025.<\/p>\n A boom in lactose-free options has enabled people who had avoided dairy for health reasons and gut discomfort to swap back.<\/p>\n Australian sales of a2 milk\u2019s lactose-free option grew nearly 10% in the second half of 2025 compared with the same period of 2024. David Bortolussi, a2\u2019s CEO, says an estimated one in three Australians believe they have some milk intolerance.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot more opportunity for us to expand into lactose-free and that\u2019s also bringing more consumers back into the [milk] category,\u201d Bortolussi says.<\/p>\n graph of trends in milk consumption<\/a><\/p>\n Protein-hungry shoppers are also driving dairy sales as the fitness trend cements its grip on the popular imagination, according to Bega Group.<\/p>\n Known for its cheese, the company now believes its future lies in milk and yoghurts \u2013 and their increasingly popular \u201cprotein-plus\u201d counterparts. Yoghurt products with extra protein are selling out across the country\u2019s dairy aisles and Bega is betting shoppers will soon start drinking a litre of high-protein milk a week as well.<\/p>\n Bega\u2019s CEO, Pete Findlay, expects the craze to last at least five more years as demand moves from teenage boys and gym junkies into the mainstream.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s actually going into older age categories as well [because] you need to ensure that you maintain your muscle mass,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Protein fixation could endure even further amid the growing popularity of weight loss drugs<\/a> that can suppress appetite and lead to muscle deterioration. More than one in 10 Americans are<\/a> believed to have used Ozempic or similar drugs and Findlay says he\u2019s seen estimates Australian usage is approaching that level.<\/p>\n \u201cWith that weight loss, we become more active and we want to maintain our muscle bulk,\u201d Findlay says.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re looking to consume dairy, which is great: great for us and great for the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gabriel Morrison hadn\u2019t touched dairy milk for a decade until he read the ingredients label on his cheap…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-518666","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}