Planting Hope's Hope and Sesame Sesamemilk has lowest water usage across dairy and plant milks

The Planting Hope Company Inc, a food-tech company dedicated to creating sustainable food and beverage solutions through advanced ingredient, formulation, and packaging technology, has announced the results of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study conducted by Planet FWD for Hope and Sesame Sesamemilk in comparison to milk and milk alternatives. The study demonstrated that Hope and Sesame Unsweetened Original Sesamemilk uses 76% less water than generic oat milk, 87% less water than generic almond milk, and 92% less water than whole dairy milk cradle-to-grave benchmarks, based on average water use data for the USA.

"The Planting Hope Company is focusing not just on feeding people today but using our planet's resources efficiently enough to feed the growing population of tomorrow," said Julia Collins, Founder & CEO of Planet FWD. "Hope and Sesame's commitment to developing a more sustainable milk alternative is clear and we're honored to partner with the team to deliver high-fidelity data that validates and narrates their lower impact on the planet."

Water usage is a top area of sustainability focus for consumers, retailers, and food-service, with Whole Foods Market calling out water stewardship as a top food trend in their recent Whole Foods Market's Top 10 Food Trend Predictions for 2024 report.

Additionally, Hope and Sesame Sesamemilk was found to have the lowest level of CO2 emissions per one gram of protein delivered within its comparative set. Hope and Sesame emits 0.13Kg/Liter of C02 per gram of protein, while oat milk and dairy milk each emit 0.18Kg/Liter and almond milk emits 0.48Kg/liter.

"When we embarked on developing the world's first commercialized sesame milk, our goal was to create a dairy alternative that delivered comparable nutrition to dairy milk but with a greatly improved environmental footprint over existing plant milk alternatives," said Julia Stamberger, Co-founder & CEO, Planting Hope. "Sesame is an amazing crop that's been right there under our noses for 4,000 years: naturally pest resistant and self-pollinating, sesame thrives in hot, dry environments with little water, and functionally is a fantastic cover crop, often its primary agricultural use. But sesame has been underutilized as a source of human nutrition: those little seeds are packed with dense nutrition, including protein, calcium, magnesium, and other minerals. In addition to needing little water to grow our core crop, the base for sesamemilk is the ultra-nutritious pulp remaining after sesame seeds are pressed for oil – a dry extraction process that doesn't require added water, unlike the water-intensive processing required for the base ingredients of many other alternative milks."

Hope and Sesame Sesamemilk is also certified upcycled by the Upcycled Food Association, as the ultra nutrition-dense sesame pulp remaining from sesame oil extraction that is the base of sesame milk has traditionally been discarded or used for animal feed.

Hope and Sesame Sesamemilk contains 8g of complete protein per serving (Barista Blend contains 4g per serving), including all nine essential amino acids, comparable to dairy milk and 8x the protein in most almond milks and 2-3x the protein in most oat milk.

"More than 75% of the planet is intolerant of dairy, which is why the plant-based milk category has been consistently scaling at a remarkable 15% CAGR for more than 15 years, with no signs of slowing down. What was a US$7 billion global market in 2010 and US$35 billion in 2022 is projected to exceed US$120 billion worldwide by 2030. Consumers who are buying plant-based milk tell us that they are doing so for health and wellness reasons as well as environmental concerns. Yet many of the most broadly distributed current milk alternatives do not deliver comparable nutrition to dairy," continued Stamberger. "It took Planting Hope more than five years of focused R&D and a multi-million dollar financial investment to create Hope and Sesame Sesamemilk, and we're proud to have achieved our goal: resetting the standard for what's possible in plant-based milk with a delicious, sustainable, functional plant milk that froths, foams, steams and performs like a dream in hot and iced beverages, is globally relevant and scalable, delivers comparable nutrition to dairy milk and uses 76%+ less water than the top alternatives. This is the future of plant milk."

Since its launch in 2022, Hope and Sesame Sesamemilk has won more than a dozen industry and consumer awards for taste and performance, and distribution is expanding rapidly across trend-setting independent cafés and retailers in the USA and Canada.

Packaged exclusively in recyclable Tetra Pak aseptic cartons, Hope and Sesame Sesamemilk has a 14-month shelf life with no refrigeration required across its supply chain and distribution.