Tilda rice milk

Source: Tilda

Rice MLK will make its debut in the dairy alternatives aisle in Waitrose

Rice giant Tilda is making a surprise move into dairy alternatives.

The brand has unveiled Rice MLK, which will make its debut in the dairy alternatives aisle in Waitrose this month.

It is billed as blending natural and organic ingredients with a rice content of 16%, which Tilda claimed was “higher than other leading brands”.

As rice milk had “a naturally sweet taste”, the NPD was free from added sugar and artificial sweeteners, the brand added.

The NPD put “taste front and centre for consumers shopping this growing category”, said Tilda.

It tapped into “50 years of expertise and rice knowhow”, meaning consumers could “be confident in both its taste, and the quality of the rice grains used”, the brand added.

“In the last few years, the dairy alternatives category has experienced exponential growth,” said Tilda head of marketing Anna Beheshti.

This was an “exciting category” that continued to attract new shoppers “for a variety of reasons, including health and animal welfare”, she added.

However, it wasn’t often that consumers shopped the category based on taste, claimed Beheshti.

“We believe that Tilda Organic Rice MLK answers this need”, she said.

The launch follows a flurry of activity in the milk alternatives category over recent weeks.

Earlier this month, for example, Dug launched a trio of potato milks into Waitrose, and Moma Foods added two chilled oat drinks.

January saw the launch of a duo of ‘smooth’ oat drinks from Glebe Farm and an Alpro chilled milk alternative billed as the closest match to dairy milk yet.