ReMilk: doing dairy differently

Milk is an Aussie household staple. According to Dairy Australia, we drink an average of 97 litres per person each year. This is great, as milk is one of nature’s best sources of calcium, and also provides bucketloads of other nutrients. But what if you’re lactose intolerant, or are watching your sugar intake? To give milk-lovers an even healthier choice that still lets them enjoy their dairy, an Australian company has developed ReMilk. This allows you to continue drinking the milk you love while slashing more than 400 teaspoons of sugar – equivalent to a whopping 1.7 kilos – from your diet every year.

An Australian-first, Rokeby Farms’ ReMilk has made dairy even better with naturally cold-filtered, 100 percent farm-fresh Aussie milk that contains half the sugar and twice the protein of regular milk. But this isn’t some substandard milk alternative. ReMilk provides all the same goodness of milk and has the same taste and consistency of regular milk.

How is this possible?

ReMilk uses an innovative patent-pending cold and continuous filtration system that reduces the sugar content while keeping all the good stuff in. The filtration system was originally developed to create a high-protein milk product, but the team behind it soon realised that they could use this technology to take things one step further.

“We saw that consumers – not just in Australia, but globally – were becoming more conscious about their sugar intake,” says Luke Marget, co-founder and joint CEO at the Made Group, the business behind the Rokeby Farms brand. “We realised we could evolve the cold filtration process one step further to concentrate and remove the sugars in milk. The additional filters we put in place detect and remove the sugar, which is called lactose.

“We’re just putting in cold, fresh milk from the farm and out the other end comes cold, fresh milk from the farm. But it has different levels of the main components of milk. It’s an awesome way to adjust those levels and still have a fresh milk that, importantly, tastes like regular milk. It just has a different nutritional composition.”

Making good better

Because the lactose is removed, ReMilk is an appealing option for those who are lactose intolerant. Unlike other lactose-free milks, which simply replace the lactose with other sugars, ReMilk is both lactose-free and 50 percent lower in sugar.

“With ReMilk, we start by removing half the sugar, so it’s got 50 percent less lactose to begin with,” Marget explains. “Then we convert the remaining sugar into other sugars that are more easily digested. So it’s got 50 percent less total sugar, and it’s also lactose free.”

Due to the filtration process, ReMilk is also slightly higher in calcium than regular milk. But Marget is quick to point out that there’s nothing at all wrong with your standard dairy.

“We’re not here to bastardise milk; we’re glorifying what’s already awesome,” Marget says. “ReMilk just provides health-conscious consumers with another choice. Australians consume almost 100 litres of liquid milk a year, which is quite a lot. We’re just giving people an option to do a simple swap. By doing so, they can cut out quite a significant amount of sugar from their diet over the course of the year.”

Local and sustainable

The ReMilk factory and head office is located in Dandenong, Victoria. This is on the doorstep of Gippsland, which is Australia’s biggest dairy-producing region. The business sources its fresh milk from around 200 dairy farms, predominantly in the Gippsland area.

“It comes here fresh from the farm in tankers, and then we make our product,” Marget says. “There’s nothing added. We start with fresh milk, and we end with fresh milk.”

Taking an extra step towards saintliness, ReMilk is also packaged in fully recyclable, renewable cartons made from 100 percent plant-based raw materials.

“Our packaging comes from responsibly managed forests, and it doesn’t contain any fossil fuels,” Marget says. “It’s made from paper and by-product from sugar cane processing. So it’s natural, sustainable and recyclable, which is increasingly important to consumers.”

Milk myth-busters

MYTH: raw milk doesn’t contain any sugars, but store-bought milks contain added sugars.

FACT: a common misconception is that sugar is added to milk, particularly skim milk, which has a higher sugar content. Regular milk actually contains natural sugars. This is because lactose occurs naturally in milk and the sugars in milk come from lactose. Skim milk typically contains a higher amount of sugar because fat is removed from its contents. This increases its natural sugar content due to the milk’s ingredients being condensed.

MYTH: plant-based milk alternatives are more nutritious than regular milk.

FACT: other than soy milk, plant-based milks are low in protein, and some can contain fewer nutrients, such as calcium. Liquid white milks have the nutritional benefits of calcium, protein, vitamins B12, A and D, riboflavin (B2), zinc, phosphorus and iodine.

“Over the last decade, many Australians have swapped dairy milk for plant-based alternatives,” says Advanced Sports Dietitian and Accredited Practising Dietitian, Simone Austin. “However, this isn’t a like-for-like nutritional swap. Dairy milk is one of the best natural sources of calcium. This is important, as more than half of all Aussies aged two years and above consume inadequate amounts of calcium from food sources.”

ReMilk is available in Woolworths and select independent stores across Australia. For more information or to find stockists, head to rokebyfarms.com.au