Labeling on new Trader Joe’s Oat milk

[Zena]

Hi Jeff,

I recently saw a new Oat Beverage at Trader Joe’s that appears to have only 2 ingredients: water and hydrolyzed oats. But under Nutrition Facts, it says it has 4g of added sugar. On their website, it states “Instead of adding cane sugar to our new Non-Dairy Oat Beverages (which you’ll find in many store-brand oat “milk” beverages), we unearthed its natural, balanced sweetness by breaking down the starches present in the oats to create sugar. What you get is a slightly sweet, delightfully smooth, and criminally “creamy” vegan Oat Beverage that’s perfect for cereal, smoothies, lattes, & more.”

So it sounds like they’re extracting these sugars and adding them back into the oat milk. My question is why isn’t that in the ingredient list? It seems misleading...is this an issue if I’m trying to avoid using any added sugars? (I would only be using this in small amounts in recipes not to drink).

Here’s the link to the website:
https://www.traderjoes.com/digin/post/n ... -beverages

Thanks!
Zena

[JeffN]

Hi Jeff,

I recently saw a new Oat Beverage at Trader Joe’s that appears to have only 2 ingredients: water and hydrolyzed oats. But under Nutrition Facts, it says it has 4g of added sugar. On their website, it states “Instead of adding cane sugar to our new Non-Dairy Oat Beverages (which you’ll find in many store-brand oat “milk” beverages), we unearthed its natural, balanced sweetness by breaking down the starches present in the oats to create sugar. What you get is a slightly sweet, delightfully smooth, and criminally “creamy” vegan Oat Beverage that’s perfect for cereal, smoothies, lattes, & more.”

So it sounds like they’re extracting these sugars and adding them back into the oat milk. My question is why isn’t that in the ingredient list? It seems misleading...is this an issue if I’m trying to avoid using any added sugars? (I would only be using this in small amounts in recipes not to drink).

Here’s the link to the website:
https://www.traderjoes.com/digin/post/n ... -beverages

Thanks!
Zena

Hi Zena

Good to hear from you.

Sorry I missed this.

I don’t know the answer but my guess is, it may be a labeling error, which is not uncommon. Or, since added sugars is something that is only recently been added to the label, there may be some confusion on what counts.

You may want to write to them and ask, and if you do, report back.

In Health
Jeff