Riddet Institute experts release internationally-authored book on the future of dairy alternatives

16 April 2026 - Associate Professor Alejandra Acevedo-Fani and Distinguished Professor Harjinder Singh have just released a new book on dairy alternatives.

From nutritional and sustainability viewpoints, plant-based dairy alternatives may offer several advantages, including lactose-free products, low saturated fat and cholesterol content, higher levels of dietary fibre, and a low carbon footprint. However, most of the current dairy alternatives contain incomplete proteins (lacking in some essential amino acids) and do not provide similar doses of highly absorbable micronutrients found in cow’s milk, such as calcium.

Alternative Dairy Products and Technologies comprehensively compiles the state of the art in alternative dairy science research and innovations, including processing, sensory qualities, and nutritional value in comparison to dairy milk. The book also looks ahead to new and emerging biotechnologies, such as molecular farming and precision fermentation, that promise to create near-identical products to animal derived dairy.

Bringing together key issues of environmental sustainability, human nutrition, biotechnology, and product development, this book is an interdisciplinary reference written and edited by a global team of experts from a variety of fields.

Dr Alejandra Acevedo-Fani is an Associate Professor in Food Science at Massey University (New Zealand), and a Principal Investigator of the Riddet Institute Centre of Research Excellence. Assoc Prof Acevedo-Fani’s research investigates how interactions between food biopolymers across multiple length scales govern food structure, techno-functional properties and digestion behaviour.

 Distinguished Professor Harjinder Singh is a Fellow Laureate at the Riddet Institute, Massey University (New Zealand). He is an internationally acclaimed scientist focusing on food science, food proteins and ingredient functionality, functional foods and the food structure-nutrition interface, dairy science and technology.

Both Dist. Prof Singh and Assoc Prof Acevedo-Fani are co-founders of ANDFOODS (2023), a company that produces functional dairy alternatives.