Dairy and lactose: 49 foods rated

Evaporated milk has had most of its water boiled off, so the lactose concentrates to roughly double that of fresh milk. It is used by the tablespoon in coffee and by the tin in baking, and only one of those is a small dose.

• USDA FoodData Central
• Ciqual (ANSES)
• Schweizer Nahrwertdatenbank v6.3 (2021)

Fresh pasteurised milk holds the same lactose as UHT - heat does not break the sugar, it only kills the bacteria. What changes with pasteurisation is that no live culture is left to help digest it, which is the whole difference between a glass of milk and a yoghurt of the same volume.

• USDA FoodData Central
• Ciqual (ANSES)
• Schweizer Nahrwertdatenbank v6.3 (2021)

Goat milk is 4.1 to 4.5 g of lactose per 100 ml across the composition tables - essentially the same as cow's, which is the point. It is not a low-lactose swap, and the reason some people find it easier has nothing to do with the sugar: its fat globules are smaller and its casein differs, which changes the digestion of the fat and the protein.

• USDA FoodData Central
• Ciqual (ANSES)
• Schweizer Nahrwertdatenbank v6.3 (2021)

Milk is the reference dose on this axis: about 4.7 g of lactose per 100 ml, so a large glass is roughly 12 g. That number is worth knowing in both directions. Most people with lactose maldigestion tolerate up to 12 g as a single dose with no or minor symptoms, especially with a meal - but no single threshold holds for everyone, and some react below 6 g. Symptoms follow the dose and the person, not the diagnosis.

• EFSA Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies, EFSA Journal 8(9):1777 (2010), Scientific Opinion on lactose thresholds, for the tolerance figures
• USDA FoodData Central and Ciqual (ANSES) for the lactose content

Milk powder is milk with the water taken out, so the lactose concentrates by roughly eight times. It carries less than skimmed milk powder for one reason only: about a quarter of its weight is fat, and that fat displaces sugar. It is one of the commonest hidden sources there is, slipped into biscuits, sauces, crisps, processed meat and instant mixes.

• USDA FoodData Central
• Ciqual (ANSES)
• Schweizer Nahrwertdatenbank v6.3 (2021)

Sheep milk is reported between 4.2 and 5.4 g of lactose per 100 ml depending on the table and the season - a spread wide enough that a single figure would be a fiction, and every part of it overlaps cow's milk. It is not the lower-lactose option it is sometimes sold as. It is far richer in fat and protein, which is why it makes such dense cheese.

• USDA FoodData Central
• Ciqual (ANSES)
• Schweizer Nahrwertdatenbank v6.3 (2021)

Skimmed milk powder is about HALF its weight in lactose - the carbohydrate fraction runs around 50 per cent and nearly all of it is milk sugar. It holds more than whole milk powder because removing the fat leaves the sugar and the protein to make up the weight. It is the cheapest dairy filler there is, which is why it turns up in products that have no reason to contain milk at all.

• USDA FoodData Central
• Ciqual (ANSES)
• Schweizer Nahrwertdatenbank v6.3 (2021)

Skimming removes fat, not lactose. Skimmed milk holds about 4.8 g per 100 ml, marginally more than whole milk, because taking the fat out leaves everything else a little more concentrated in the same volume - and it loses the fat that would have slowed the sugar's arrival. Low-fat is not low-lactose, and here it is very slightly the other way round.

• USDA FoodData Central
• Ciqual (ANSES)
• Schweizer Nährwertdatenbank v6.3 (2021)
• EFSA Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies, EFSA Journal 8(9):1777 (2010), Scientific Opinion on lactose thresholds, for the tolerance figures

Sweetened condensed milk is evaporated milk with sugar added, and the added sucrose takes up weight - so the lactose PERCENTAGE reads no higher than evaporated milk even though nothing was removed. The lactose per spoonful of milk solids is the same; it is the percentage that is diluted, not the dose.

• USDA FoodData Central
• Ciqual (ANSES)
• Schweizer Nahrwertdatenbank v6.3 (2021)

Whey is the liquid the lactose leaves in when milk curdles, so drying it concentrates the milk sugar instead of removing it. This is also why the cheeses that drain the most whey end up the lowest in lactose.

Whole milk carries about 4.7 g of lactose per 100 ml, and the fat percentage on the bottle is not a lever on it: skimming removes fat and leaves the sugar, so a skimmed milk reads marginally HIGHER - around 4.8 - because everything that is not fat is a little more concentrated per 100 ml. The difference is too small to act on. If anything the fat helps, since it slows gastric emptying, so the same dose arrives more gradually than it would from skimmed.

• USDA FoodData Central
• Ciqual (ANSES)
• Schweizer Nährwertdatenbank v6.3 (2021)
• EFSA Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies, EFSA Journal 8(9):1777 (2010), Scientific Opinion on lactose thresholds, for the tolerance figures

Cultured buttermilk is fermented, so part of the lactose has already been eaten and it carries a little less than the milk it was made from.

Cream is milk with the fat concentrated, and lactose lives in the water phase - so the richer the cream, the less lactose per spoonful. Double cream carries noticeably less than single, and a splash in coffee is a much smaller dose than the same volume of milk. Ciqual and USDA both carry this lactose figure, because one national table's value for a dairy product can sit well away from another's.

• Ciqual, French food composition table (ANSES), queried for lactose

Cream cheese holds less lactose than milk, because it is mostly fat and some whey drained away before it was potted. It is cultured too, so bacteria took a share. The catch is the portion: it is spread thickly, not measured.

• USDA FoodData Central
• McCance & Widdowson's Composition of Foods (PHE, 2015)

Greek yoghurt is fermented and then strained, and both steps take lactose out: the cultures eat part of it, and straining pours off the whey with the rest of it, landing around 2-3 g per 100 g against milk's 4.7. There is a second effect the label never mentions and EFSA has accepted: live yoghurt cultures carry their own lactase into the gut and go on digesting lactose there, which is why a live yoghurt sits easier than its figure alone predicts. Heat-treated yoghurt has no live cultures and loses that half of the benefit.

• EFSA Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies, EFSA Journal 8(10):1763 (2010), on live yoghurt cultures and lactose digestion, authorised by Regulation (EU) No 432/2012
• USDA FoodData Central
• Ciqual (ANSES)

Mascarpone is not really a cheese: it is cream set with acid, with no culture at all - so nothing ever ate its lactose, and what keeps it low is simply that cream is mostly fat. It is eaten in far larger portions than cream cheese, by the spoonful in desserts, which is where the dose comes from.

• USDA FoodData Central
• McCance & Widdowson's Composition of Foods (PHE, 2015)

Ricotta is made from whey — the lactose-rich fraction left over from cheesemaking — so it keeps more of the milk sugar than a cheese made from the curd does.

Skyr is fermented and then strained, and straining pours off the whey with the lactose in it. That is why strained yoghurts sit easier than plain yoghurt, and far easier than milk: the more you ferment and drain, the less lactose is left.

Whey protein depends on the grade: the isolate is filtered far enough that most people are fine with it, while the concentrate keeps more of the milk sugar. Check which of the two words the label uses.

Yogurt: fermentation is exactly what separates yoghurt from milk — the cultures eat part of the lactose, leaving less of it than the milk it was made from, and the live bacteria then carry their own lactase into your gut and keep digesting it there. That effect is the only lactose health claim the EFSA has approved (Reg. EU 432/2012), and it needs LIVE cultures: heat-treated or pasteurised-after-fermentation yoghurt loses it. That approval is a regulatory fact and not a measurement: the opinion behind it substantiates what LIVE CULTURES do to lactose digestion, and measures the lactose of no yoghurt at all. No gram figure stands in this note any more: the one that used to be here had no measurement behind it.

• EFSA Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies, EFSA Journal 8(10):1763 (2010), on live yoghurt cultures and lactose digestion, authorised by Regulation (EU) No 432/2012

Buffalo mozzarella is made from a milk richer in fat and solids than cow's, and it is sold sitting in its own whey - which keeps it moist and keeps some lactose in the tub rather than in the cheese. Drain it and eat it fresh; it is not a cheese that improves with days.

• USDA FoodData Central
• McCance & Widdowson's Composition of Foods (PHE, 2015)

Casein is the protein fraction of milk, and lactose is not part of it - the sugar is water-soluble and leaves with the whey during separation. What remains is a trace from incomplete washing, which is why casein and whey protein sit at opposite ends of this axis despite coming out of the same tank. Ciqual and USDA both carry this lactose figure, because one national table's value for a dairy product can sit well away from another's.

• USDA FoodData Central, queried for the sugar profile
• Ciqual, French food composition table (ANSES), queried for lactose

Crème fraîche is cultured cream: the ferments have already eaten part of the lactose, and there is little milk sugar in cream to begin with. The spoonfuls used are small, which decides more here than the concentration does.

Edam is pressed and ripened like the hard cheeses, and it lands just short of them: it is NOT among the twelve cheese types measured with undetectable lactose, because it is semi-hard and ripened for weeks to months rather than for years. What is left is a trace rather than nothing, and that is the difference between edam reading low here and gruyere reading none.

• USDA FoodData Central
• Portnoi PA & MacDonald A, J Hum Nutr Diet 22 (2009), 400-408, whose list of cheeses with undetectable lactose does not include edam

Feta ripens submerged in brine for two to three months, and lactose is water-soluble - so it leaves the cheese for the brine, which is why feta measures lower than its short ageing would suggest. Rinsing it before use takes a little more.

• USDA FoodData Central
• McCance & Widdowson's Composition of Foods (PHE, 2015)

Goat cheese is low in lactose for the same reason every aged cheese is: the bacteria eat it during ripening, and most of what survives leaves in the whey when the curd is drained. Goat's milk itself has slightly less lactose than cow's, but ageing is what does the work here - a fresh goat cheese carries more than an aged one. Ciqual and USDA both carry this lactose figure, because one national table's value for a dairy product can sit well away from another's.

• Ciqual, French food composition table (ANSES), queried for lactose

Gouda is the cheese in this group whose name covers both ends: four weeks to three years, sold under one word. The lactose follows that span - a young gouda carries around 2 g per 100 g, while a gouda matured six months or more measures under 1 mg. It is not on the list of cheeses found free of lactose and galactose, which is why it reads low here where gruyère and parmesan read none. The age on the packet is the number that decides.

• USDA FoodData Central
• Schweizer Nährwertdatenbank v6.3 (2021)
• Portnoi PA & MacDonald A, J Hum Nutr Diet 22 (2009), 400-408, whose list of cheeses with undetectable lactose and galactose does not include gouda

Grated mozzarella is the same young cheese with more surface and a longer shelf life. The anti-caking coating is usually potato or maize starch rather than anything dairy, which is worth knowing if you are reading the label for milk.

• USDA FoodData Central
• McCance & Widdowson's Composition of Foods (PHE, 2015)

Halloumi is brined and pressed, so most of the whey and its lactose is gone. Usually fine even for people who react to a glass of milk.

Kefir is the most fermented of the lot — yeasts and bacteria together take out roughly 30-50% of the lactose, and the live culture keeps digesting the rest in your gut. It is routinely tolerated by people who cannot drink the same volume of milk.

Mozzarella is stretched in hot water - that is what pasta filata means - and the water carries lactose away with it. Add the whey that drained before, and a fresh mozzarella lands low despite being a young cheese, which is unusual for its age.

• USDA FoodData Central
• McCance & Widdowson's Composition of Foods (PHE, 2015)

Paneer is the exception in this group: it is set with acid rather than with a culture, so no bacteria ever ate any of its lactose. Only the draining removed any, which is why it sits at the top of the fresh cheeses here despite tasting of almost nothing.

• USDA FoodData Central
• McCance & Widdowson's Composition of Foods (PHE, 2015)