More than 50,000 people have now signed a petition by food awareness organisation ProVeg International calling on the European Commission to allow plant-based milk under the EU school fruit, vegetables and milk scheme.

The EU scheme does not currently include calcium-fortified plant-based milk and the Commission is inviting feedback from the public as part of a consultation process which ends on July 28, 2022.

The petition (schoolmilk.org), which uses the hashtag '#schoolmilk' on social media, gives European citizens the opportunity to support climate-friendly options on the school menu. 

Jasmijn de Boo, vice-president of ProVeg said: “It is fantastic that so many people have signed our petition so far and we really hope that more people will sign up to send a clear message to the European Commission of the need for fortified plant-milks in schools.

"Offering plant-based milks will help the EU to decarbonise society and at the same time allow for greater choice for those who do not want to drink cow’s milk with their school meal."

ProVeg has said that it is making the case for including plant-based milks in the scheme on the following grounds:

“Both the EU’s Farm to Fork strategy and the Beating Cancer plan recommend adopting more plant-based diets, and this includes plant-based alternatives to conventional dairy products,” de Boo added.

“We urge the commission to embrace the opportunity with this review to make calcium-fortified plant-based milks eligible products in the scheme and thus ensure greater choice of milk drinks for children across Europe."