Oatly Adds ‘Trust The Processed’ Label To Milk Cartons

Oatly has added a new “trust the processed” label to its drink cartons, PlantBasedNews reports.

The Swedish oat milk brand added the label to its packaging last year, prompting both praise and pushback for meeting the topic of food processing directly.

Oatly’s new label acknowledges the ongoing debate around ultra-processed foods (UPFs), an increasingly polarised topic that many consumers remain confused about.

The updated packaging says: “Trust the processed. When turning oats into a tasty liquid like the one you’re holding, we use clever production processes like heat treatment and homogenisation. These are also used for cow’s milk, and we guess that makes our drinks processed, which apparently can be scary for some.”

“That’s cool, food processing has been adopted by humans for centuries to reduce nutrient loss, curb food waste, and give people access to safe, nutritious, and more affordable food. We’re 100 percent on board with that, and if you are too, we’re happy to have met you through this process.”

Writing on LinkedIn, Caroline Orfila Jenkins, the vice president of science and technology at Oatly and a professor of plant biochemistry and nutrition at the University of Leeds, described labels as one of Oatly’s “most powerful” comms tools.

“Current opinions around UPFs are polarising, offering simplistic yet confusing narratives about food processing which are – in my view – distracting us from tackling the integrated challenges of climate change and food injustice,” she added. “We choose to speak openly and transparently about this topic and continually partner with expert voices, such as nutritionists and dieticians, to get the facts out there.”