The next big trend in the $7 billion plant-based food market is being led by a family-owned California company making great tasting dairy alternative products from nutritious and sustainable ancient grains.
Mill It has created the first ever plant-based buttermilk and buttermilk salad dressings, targeting a rapidly growing number of health and environmentally conscious consumers. With their innovative product lines, Mill It is on a mission to prove to consumers everywhere that The Best Taste is Plant Based™.
Mill It Buttermilk opens up plant-based opportunities to recreate recipes for baking, sauces, and smoothies that previously could only be fulfilled with dairy ingredients. Mill It Salad Dressings – Classic Ranch, Creamy Italian, and Thousand Island – are the only plant-based dressings with just 60 calories and six grams of fat, allowing consumers to enjoy healthy salads that don’t sacrifice on taste.
At the heart of Mill It’s plant-based products are the sustainable ancient grains millet and sorghum, used to replace resource-intensive dairy analogs such as soybeans, almonds, tree nuts, and oats.
Cultivated for thousands of years, mostly by civilizations in Africa and Asia, ancient grains have a high nutritional value, are non-GMO and don’t require fats or hydrogenated oils to improve flavor. These attributes make them ideal bases for a wide variety of healthy and tasty low-calorie foods.
Through a patented formulation and technology two years in the making, Mill It crafts products from these grains that match the taste, texture, and consistency of dairy, while being rich in micronutrients and hypoallergenic.
As a crop, these grains are drought and extreme-weather resistant. They require less fertilizer and water than soybeans and almonds and provide high yields. That means they are relatively easy to grow, generate low runoff contamination, have reduced risk of crop damage and offer high-profit potential.
There is already tremendous interest in Mill It plant-based food products. Within three months of launching, Whole Foods Market made Mill It’s salad dressings available in more than 300 locations nationwide. Mill It Buttermilk will also be available in Sprouts Farmers Market locations across the country beginning in August. Other distribution deals with several major grocers and retailers are in the works.
To facilitate growth, Kern Venture Group led a $765,000 Series Seed round. Ariel Savannah Angel Partners alongside investors from the Santa Barbara Angel Alliance and Tech Coast Angels filled out the remainder of the round. Mill It is a family owned and operated company based in Bakersfield, California. Bill Myers, CEO, and his father, Scott Myers, VP of Innovation, together have more than 30 years of successful food-product development experience for companies like Califia Farms, Keurig Green Mountain and Litehouse. The company currently has two product lines and four SKUs in market.
