Courting the Carb-Conscious, Maple Hill Creamery Adds Zero-Sugar Organic Milk

Kinderhook, N.Y.-based Maple Hill Creamery has debuted organic, no-sugars milk in a bid to win consumers who have shied away from milk because of its carbohydrate content.

The new Zero Sugar Organic Ultra-Filtered Milk is available in whole and reduced-fat varieties. The average serving of milk, Maple Hill notes in a news release, contains 12 grams of sugar; Maple Hill's filtering process removes naturally occurring sugars, including lactose, from the products. Both the whole and reduced-fat offerings contain 8 grams of protein per serving. 

Zero-sugar milk represents "freedom to enjoy cow’s milk without the worry or guilt over sugar, carbs or lactose, freedom for parents to provide nutritious milk to their children with no sugar or sweeteners [and] freedom to have milk in your coffee again," Maple Hill Creamery CEO Carl Gerlach said in the release.

Leah Silberman, a registered dietitian and partner in the company, said the new offering "puts milk back on the table for so many people who left for nondairy milk alternatives." The product is now available at Whole Foods Market stores nationwide.

Chicago market-research firm IRI reported last month that milk sales in March were down vs. the pandemic-boosted highs recorded a year earlier but up 7.3% over a pre-pandemic baseline of March 2019. Meanwhile, sales of plant-based milk alternatives, from a much smaller base, climbed 20% over the course of 2020, and 39% of U.S. households now say they purchase plant-based dairy alternatives, according to data from research firm SPINS released in April by the Plant Based Foods Association and the Good Foods Institute.