Nutritional quality of plant-based drinks sold in Italy: the Food Labelling of Italian Products (FLIP) study

Plant-based drinks represent a heterogeneous class of beverages, made from several vegetalsources, with a market rapidly expanding around the world. These beverages are mainly drunkin the replacement of milk. Thus, aims of the present study were to: (i) evaluate the nutritionaldeclaration of 330 plant-based drinks currently available on the Italian market; (ii) compare theirnutrition facts based on type, presence or not of organic certification and nutrition (NC) or healthclaims (HC), and of specific claims ("no added sugars" and "source of calcium"); (iii) compare theirnutrition composition with cow's milk. A high variability in terms of nutrient profile among productswas observed. Limited difference was found between products belonging to both organic and NCcategories, while products carrying HC showed lower energy, carbohydrates, sugar, and higherprotein contents than the related counterparts. Compared to cow's milk, plant-based drinks showeddifferences in terms of nutrient profile, mostly regarding the lower protein content (except for soydrinks). Overall, due to the variability, findings from the present survey show that plant-baseddrinks sold in Italy cannot be considered tout court as milk substitutes and support the importance ofimproving knowledge towards food labeling to make conscious food choices.