The Plant based Foods Association – which represents 75 of the United States’ leading plant-based food companies – has released new data from SPINS, the retail sales data company for the natural and specialty products industry, that shows the total market for the plant-based sector (excluding data from Whole Foods Market) tops $5 billion in sales.

“The steady growth of the plant-based foods industry shows that consumers continue to shift away from animal products towards plant-based options,” said Michele Simon, executive director of the Plant based Foods Association.

The analysis shows plant-based milk sales leading the way, topping $4.2 billion over the past year, with 13.1% growth for refrigerated products in the natural channel.

The data also showed that cheese alternatives are the fastest growing category, with 31.4% growth in the natural channel and 18% growth in all channels, for a total of $104 million in sales over the past year.

The data comes as a bill was introduced in Congress that would not allow non-dairy alternative products to be labelled with words such as “milk,”“cheese,” or “yogurt.”

According to the SPINS data, total plant-based meat sales exceeded $606 million in sales last year, with refrigerated meat alternatives experiencing especially high growth, at 15.9% in the natural channel.

SPINS analysed data in four categories: non-dairy beverages (refrigerated and shelf stable), cheese alternatives, meat alternatives (frozen and refrigerated), and tofu products over a 52-week period ending January 22, 2017.