Greek scientist Angeliki Triantafyllou won the 2026 European Inventor Award in the “Industry” category for developing a method to make pea milk that has high nutritional value and leaves a smaller environmental foot print.
The Greek biotechnologist is president of Cerealiq AB and was a co-founder of Oatly, the world’s largest producer of oat-based drinks, and for more than 20 years she led the company’s research.
Speaking to Euronews, Triantafyllou explained that the future of plant-based food lies not in diet fads but in products with high nutritional value and a smaller environmental footprint. Since the production of cow milk requires land, water, feed consumption while accompanied by significant greenhouse emissions, plant-based milk is an feasible alternative.
Raising the question of how the overpopulated planet will be fed in the coming decades with resources becoming more scarce, she believes that plants provide the answer as next-generation foods.
The patented enzymatic method
The Greek scientist developed and patented an enzymatic method which significantly improves the taste, color, texture and foaming ability of oat drinks, while at the same time increasing their nutritional value compared with previous technologies.
This innovation played a decisive role in transforming oat drinks from a niche product into a global market. Now Triantafyllou is focusing on an unlike product to make: pea milk.
Now her team is developing a technology that uses the whole pea, preserving all its nutrients, instead of relying only on isolated protein as is the case in most current applications:
“Our method, with our enzymatic technology, preserves all the properties and the full nutritional value of the pea. And of course it is an environmentally friendly method,” she says.
Not another food fad
For the Greek scientist, the challenge in nutrition is to ensure good quality across the entire range of animal and plant-based products. Instead of following fads, we should create foods that genuinely have high nutritional value.
As an example, she indirectly refers to products that have enjoyed great commercial success, such as almond milk, without offering comparable nutritional value.
By contrast, she argues that new plant-based raw materials should be chosen for their nutritional profile and for how much they contribute to more sustainable food production.
According to Triantafyllou, plant-based products are not intended to completely replace animal products, but to cover part of the nutritional needs of a planet that will have to feed billions of people over the coming decades: “Animal production cannot increase indefinitely to meet the needs of a constantly growing population.”
Her new project uses peas which contain high-quality protein, while oats provide valuable beta-glucans and dietary fiber, which most people consume in quantities far below the recommended levels. Pea milk can offer that high quality protein.
At the same time, plant-based crops generally require fewer natural resources and can offer solutions in regions that already face problems such as water scarcity, soil degradation and the impacts of climate change.
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