Lactates not Lactose

I recently received an email asking if there was milk in potassium lactate.

The answer is no. In fact, there is no lactose in any of the "lac" additives found in ingredients lists.

I know this surprises some people, because there are lists of what not to eat - compiled by the lazy or ignorant - that include these items.

There are three main groups of "lac"s. Lactates, lactylates, and lactic acid.

The lactates appear in combination with calcium, sodium, potassium or, rarely, other elements. Calcium lactate is common.

The lactylates are more complicated, with forms like calcium stearoyl-2 lactylate or sodium isostearoyl lactylate.

As far as I can tell neither type will ever contain lactose. If you have lactose intolerance you don't need to worry about them.

Same is true if you have a dairy protein allergy. These ingredients have no protein in them. FAAN (The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network) says:

They do not contain milk protein and need not be restricted by someone avoiding milk.

Lactic acid is a bit more complicated, for some. It does not contain lactose and presents no problem for the lactose intolerant.

But it can be derived from dairy. However, lactic acid derived from dairy (from whey, to be precise) seems to only be used in foods like ice cream or cheese, which are dairy products themselves.

Other foods use lactic acid that is not derived from whey.

So people with milk allergies need only to use some common sense. If the food is a dairy product, and you're trying to avoid dairy products, it doesn't matter if it also contains lactic acid.

If there is otherwise no dairy in the product, then don't worry about the lactic acid. Again FAAN says that lactic acid:

not contain milk protein and need not be restricted by someone avoiding milk.

All this and much much is contained in Dairy or Nondairy? The Experts Speak on my web site.