Assembly Line

How oat milk is made

Oat milk only works because enzymes chop the starch in oats before it can turn the drink to glue.

stations
8
things upstream
13
raw sources
9
steps from the ground
4

The short version

Oats are milled, stirred into warm water and ground to a slurry. Enzymes and heat break the starch into smaller sugars and make a thick oat base. A centrifuge or filter removes the solids. Vitamins, oil and salt are added, then the liquid is homogenized and heat-treated to last.

  1. Mill the oats

    Measured oats are milled to break the grains open so water can reach the inside.

    Goes in
    Oats

  2. Grind into warm slurry

    Warm water joins the oat meal in a grinder, which turns it into a thin slurry.

    Goes in
    Water

  3. Dose with enzymes

    Enzymes and heat are added to the slurry. Oats are 50 to 60 percent starch, which would gel and clog the process. Amylase enzymes chop the starch into smaller sugars before that happens, and the slurry thins into an oat base.

    oats are 50 to 60% starch

  4. Spin out the solids

    Decanting, filters and centrifuges pull the liquid away from the leftover fiber.

  5. Fortify and season

    Oil, salt, sweetener and flavorings may be stirred in. Oat milk is naturally low in calcium, iron and vitamin A compared with cow's milk, so makers add vitamins and minerals.

    Goes in
    Vegetable oilTable salt

  6. Homogenize it smooth

    The liquid is forced through a homogenizer to shrink and even out the particle sizes. Stabilizers may also be used for steadiness.

  7. Heat-treat for shelf life

    Pasteurization, or ultra-high temperature treatment for shelf-stable cartons, kills microbes. Without the starch-cutting step earlier the starch would have gelled in this heat.

  8. Fill the cartons

    The finished drink is filled into cartons or bottles and sealed.

End of the lineOat milk

Worth repeating

  • Oat milk was developed in the 1990s by Swedish scientists, and a first patent application was filed in 1994.
  • In the United States, oat milk sales jumped 303 percent in one year, from 2019 to 2020.

Back to the ground

Follow every input upstream and oat milk starts as these 9 raw sources.

OatsWaterSoybeansRapeseedClayRock saltSeawaterCrude oilNatural gas

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Sources

Cite this page: "How oat milk is made." Assembly Line, 2026-11-03. https://assemblyline.org/make/oat-milk

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