16-6-2025
☄️ Farm Dairy and PlanetDairy power Albert Heijn's groundbreaking launch of hybrid milks 💫
In a significant leap for sustainable food innovation, Dutch retailer Albert Heijn has today launched a new range of dairy and plant milk blends – a major first for the European retail sector. Behind this industry-defining move are two trailblazers in dairy and food-tech: Farm Dairy Netherlands and PlanetDairy Denmark.
PlanetDairy has combined its proprietary core technology with Farm Dairy's production platform to make this new blended milk product possible. Giving dairy lovers the taste and nutritional profile of traditional dairy with the lower carbon benefits of plant ingredients.
“We first with Albert Heijn in the spring of 2024,” explains Dr Paul Cornillon, CTO, PlanetDairy, “We shared the success of our cheese launch in the Nordic markets and approached them with ideas on cheese, milk and yogurt.” Hans Zijlstra, Manager Quality & Technology Farm Dairy adds, “Given our processing capabilities and innovation strength, combined with a long lasting relationship with AH, it was logical that we were asked to partner PlanetDairy.”
The first challenge to overcome was taste and appearance. The new milk blend had to look and taste like traditional dairy milk that people are used to. Then of course, it needs to be affordable. So ingredients must be selected carefully. And in between, the team also had to ensure a strong nutritional profile.”
“Having an open-minded and collaborative partner like Farm Dairy makes the task addressable and equally enjoyable,” smiles Paul. “Once we had agreed the overall project objectives, we started with the lab prototypes we had developed in the PlanetDairy test kitchen and put our heads down to work out the optimal solution.”
“PlanetDairy brought in knowledge and expertise on plant proteins and how they can contribute to lowering CO2 footprint. Combined with our heritage in traditional dairy and our experience in plant-based products led to a great partnership,” adds Hans.
Each round of product development was interspersed with consumer feedback and then presented to Albert Heijn. In this agile process, the right formula was reached within ample time: Looks like traditional milk, tastes like traditional milk, has a great nutritional profile, and can be priced competitively.
“At Albert Heijn, we pride ourselves on being pathbreakers in Dutch retail. The Farm Dairy and PlanetDairy partnership has enabled us to be the first to launch dairy and
plant milk blends in the Netherlands,” states Jan de Graaf, Head of Dairy category at Albert Heijn.
“We are delighted to see the results of our partnership with the PlanetDairy team to bring innovative and sustainable dairy alternatives on Dutch supermarket shelves,” says Arend Bouwer, Managing Director, Farm Dairy. Jakob Skovgaard, CEO PlanetDairy, agrees, “This is just the first step. We are already working on our next project together: yogurt blends.”
