Dairy-based butter is one of the essential ingredients in pastry, but as 65%–70% of adults are lactose intolerant, it makes a lot of sense to start working with a dairy free butter alternative. Lactose intolerance varies widely between different ethnic groups: 95% of Asian people 75% of Afro-Caribbean people 50% of mediterranean people 10% of Northern Europe.
There are other convincing arguments to stop using animal-based butter when making pastry and switch to a dairy alternative butter that supports both health and sustainability. Planet Health Adopting a plant-based diet is the single biggest way to reduce our environmental impact on the planet as it could reduce global food-related greenhouse gas emissions by up to 70%. Society health Today 77% of global farming land is dedicated to pastures for grazing livestock, and land used to grow crops to feed livestock. Land we could also use to feed humans. Human health Did you know that humans are the only mammal to continue drinking milk throughout our lifetimes. Dairy however is not beneficial to human health and is associated with many of our most common diseases like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease. This means that continued consumption of any kind of dairy “may have long-term adverse effects on human health.” While a global switch to a vegetarian diet would save 7.3 million lives, whereas a global switch to a vegan diet would save up to 8.1 million lives per year by 2050.
Co-founder Marike van Beurden, vegan pastry chef who is lactose-intolerant herself, prepared a lot of recipes in which she has replaced cow-butter with be better plant-butter.