Oatly Debuts New Non-Dairy Cream Cheese Made From Oats

Fans of alternative milks are probably already familiar with the Oatly name. The brand is widely known for its simply packaged oat milks — and more recently its yogurts and frozen desserts, too. According to a press release, the Swedish company is now adding another new product to its roster — a cream cheese spread. 

Indeed, there is now a purely oat-based version of the richly thick dairy topping and baking ingredient — just one more plant-based option to spread onto homemade bagels or cupcakes. Oatly Cream Cheese is one of the first of its kind and will be hitting store shelves as part of a nationwide rollout through the end of the year. 

The non-dairy spread will be available in two different flavors and sold in 8-ounce containers. (Take your pick between plain or chive and onion.) The cream cheeses are both made from oat milk, but allegedly still spread just as smoothly as their dairy counterparts. In addition to being 100% plant-based, the new products are also gluten-free and non-GMO.

So what's actually inside of Oatly Cream Cheese? Well, the base of the spread is Oatly's proprietary oat base – the core of all of the brand's products. If you're not convinced on the flavor, the spread already had a test run in Philadelphia earlier this year and was met with positive reviews.

The brand-new cream cheese is the first product announcement from Oatly this year months after the company worked to resolve some of its supply chain issues (which resulted in shortages all around the U.S.). According to Oatly North America's senior vice president of innovation Leah Hoxie, launching this new product was a sensible next step for the brand. She noted that the R&D team spent "over a year focused on bringing to market a truly great-tasting and performing plant-based option that mimics dairy cream cheese in all the best ways possible, minus the dairy."

Oatly has long boasted of its mission to champion its namesake grain. With the launch of this new cream cheese, the company is following through on its promise to, as Oatly North America president Mike Messersmith puts it, "prove the versatility and opportunity for oat-based products." Time will tell whether this particular idea has staying power.