Lactose-Free Foods: Not Useful for Everyone

The industry offers numerous lactose-free foods. For people with lactose intolerance, some of the often more expensive products make sense – but are superfluous for everyone else.

The essentials in brief:

• In the case of lactose-free products, the milk sugar (lactose) is already broken down. Therefore, they are well tolerated by people with lactose intolerance.
• Anyone who is not lactose intolerant does not need these usually more expensive products.
• Some foods are naturally lactose-free – don’t let the advertising fool you!

Lactose (milk sugar) is a natural component of milk. About every seventh person in Germany suffers from lactose intolerance (milk sugar intolerance) and cannot digest milk sugar or digest it poorly. The industry offers a wide range of lactose-free foods. They usually cost more than the conventional variants.

If you are not lactose intolerant, lactose-free products offer no added value. And even in the case of an intolerance, not everyone affected has to buy everything with the “lactose-free” label right away – because this is also used to advertise foods that naturally have almost no lactose.

Hard cheese is naturally almost lactose-free

Depending on the degree of sensitivity, many of those affected can tolerate small amounts of lactose and thus also certain conventional milk products. According to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) , most people with lactose intolerance can tolerate up to 12 grams of lactose at once.

• Butter has a lactose content of less than one percent and is usually only consumed in small amounts.
• Most types of cheese, especially hard and semi-hard cheeses such as Emmental, mountain cheese, Parmesan or Gouda, contain only traces of lactose as a result of the manufacturing process.
• Sour milk products such as yoghurt contain 3 to 4 grams of lactose per 100 grams. However, the lactic acid bacteria they contain partially break down the lactose. However, creamy stirred yoghurts often contain additional skimmed milk powder (not in the list of ingredients) and then have a higher lactose content in addition to a higher protein content. This can be seen in natural yoghurts from the higher nutritional value for sugar (up to approx. 7 grams per 100 grams.

Lactose intolerance should always be diagnosed by a specialist, and those affected should seek qualified nutritional advice. Rapid home tests are not conclusive and must be confirmed by a doctor.

“Lactose-free” only conditionally regulated by law

For the term “lactose-free” there is no legal regulation that applies to all foods. So far there have only been legal regulations for cheese or products made from cheese and milk products such as yoghurt or curds. Since the end of 2016, a lactose content of less than 0.1 grams per 100 grams and a corresponding labeling has been mandatory for these products in Germany if lactose-free is advertised.

Manufacturers of other foods, such as sausages, chocolate or rusks, which are advertised as being lactose-free, also use this value as a guide. An indication of the lactose content is not required.

Our demands:

• It must be regulated by law for all foods, which means “lactose-free” and “low-lactose”.
• Producers should not be allowed to advertise foods that meet this definition anyway (e.g. hard or semi-hard cheese).
• On the other hand, an addition such as “naturally lactose-free” is helpful information for consumers – this also makes it clear that this does not justify a higher price.