Lactase Powder Can Replace Lactase Drops

Hard to believe, but I started this blog seven years ago. That means I've watched entire generations of products come onto the market, leave, and come back again. It's like watching a time lapse movie of glaciers advancing and retreating.

The glaciers are back. Or let me set the scene for the new news.

Everybody who is lactose intolerant should know all about lactase. Lactase is the enzyme that digests lactose, the sugar found in dairy products. Digesting means breaking a complex chemical down to its simplest components: amino acids for proteins, fatty acids for fats, and simple sugars for carbohydrates. Lactose is a sugar, which is a carbohydrate. More importantly, it is a complex sugar, a disaccharide, composed of two simple sugars, glucose and galactose. Lactose is too big to be absorbed into the body through the small intestine, but the glucose and galactose that result when lactase splits it go through easily. Virtually every human - and every mammal - is born with the ability to manufacture enough lactase to digest the lactose int their mother's milk. And most humans - and virtually all mammals - lose that ability as they age. Result: lactose intolerance, defined here as the symptoms produced by the presence of undigested lactose in the intestines.

Until the 1970s there was absolutely nothing that could be done about this. Then Gist-Brocades, a Dutch pharmaceutical firm, discovered a way to get yeast to produce their own version of lactase, which could be harvested. This wasn't artificial lactase, but the real stuff. Or at least a variant.

Quick sidenote about enzymes. An enzyme is a catalyst, a chemical that speeds up other chemical reactions without being affected itself. Left alone lactose would still break down to its simple sugars. It might take longer than your lifetime for this to happen, but chemically it must happen. Nothing stays inside your intestines for more than a few days so waiting a lifetime is out of the question. Lactase, though, speeds up the process to near instantaneously. That ability makes enzymes vital to life. The body manufactures some 500,000 of them. Without them your chemistry would simply stall to a stop. And so would you.

All the enzymes are very complex proteins. And like all very complex proteins lactase can be put together in a multitude of ways. All the lactases work at the primary task of digesting lactose but they can be engineered to work best - i.e., split lactose fastest - under different conditions. Some lactases work best at body temperature and in high acidity. These are used to make the classic lactase pills, capsules, and tablets that you chew or swallow with food. Your stomach is notoriously acidic and always at body temperature.

That wasn't the first lactase that Gist-Brocades found. That lactase worked best in cool temperature with low acidity. Those happen to be conditions found in a container of milk sitting in a refrigerator. So they marketed the lactase as a powder to be added to fresh milk or other liquid dairy products. Once mixed in, the lactase worked over a day or so inside the milk and could be drunk the next day as lactose-reduced and symptom-free milk.

Remember, you can't substitute one for the other and expect it to work very well. Don't try to mix regular lactase pills into liquid dairy. There's no harm to doing so, but you aren't going to have low-lactose milk in the end.

Powders have some disadvantages. The main one that bothered people at the time was that they sometimes didn't dissolve completely, especially if the stirring in wasn't thorough. Powders were on the market for a few years even so. The first version of what then was called "Lact-Aid" was a powder. After a few years, a liquid version was developed. A few drops of liquid dissolved much more quickly and easily than the powders.

Fast forward to 2008. (Look at that glacier melt!) Lactase drops never were a huge seller and for a time every firm in America stopped making them. Customers had to write away to Canadian firms like Lacteeze to get a supply. I called it Huge News! when a firm called Pharmax started making lactase drops available in the U.S. again, saving huge amounts on postage. As I could have told them, the market for lactase drops hadn't increased. They stopped making the drops in 2010.

Lacteeze made them available the whole time, to be sure, and other U.S. firms now also sell liquid lactase. To my surprise, Pharmax is back in business. Making lactase powder.

Product Description

Lactase Powder 1.6oz Supplement

Serving Size: 1 scoop
Servings Per Container: 75
Amount Per Serving: Lactase enzyme 12.6 mg(providing 615 LAU lactase units
Other Ingredients: Maltodextrin.
Recommended intake: Add one scoop of Lactase Powder to water or juice prior to consumption of dairy products or as professionally directed.

I'm assuming this means they've developed ways of increasing the dissolvability of the powder. The reviews on Amazon are positive. You can find Pharmax Lactase Powder on many health sites, so no need to go to Amazon. I found the image of the bottle on the PureFormulas.com site.

If you want to make low-lactose dairy products at home, probably more cheaply than the fairly expensive store brands, you should give this a try.

ConsumerLab Accuses Lacteeze of Lacking Lactase

ConsumerLab is a rival of the more famous Consumer Reports. It concentrates more on pills, powders, supplements, and remedies, though, a field that is rife with quacks and where even the legitimate products may not do what they claim.

Lactase is hardly in that class. It's easy to make, can be measured with proper federally-approved units, and does exactly what it's supposed to do. Like anything that is sold over-the-counter, though, some products have to be better than others. So when ConsumerLab did a report on lactase I didn't expect any surprises.

Wrong.

Can lactose-free foods -- like like lactose-free milk -- and lactase enzyme supplements really help people with lactose intolerance? They may -- but it depends on how much enzyme activity is in the supplement and how much lactose has been removed from the food.

ConsumerLab.com selected and tested ten different lactase supplements and three popular brands of lactose-free milk. The testing showed one lactase supplement to be ineffective and another with so little activity as to be of questionable value. But ConsumerLab.com also found many supplements that met their claims and may be helpful. The three lactose-free milks had no detectable lactose but only two provided a significant amount of vitamin D.

ConsumerLab.com found that an equal amount of lactase enzyme (enough to help with a high lactose meal) cost as little as 8 cents to as much as $6.79 depending on the brand of lactase supplement.

That's from the public page. You have to be a member to get the full report. Luckily, I am. Here's the full story.

The following lactase enzymes pills were tested (amount of lactase units):

CVS Pharmacy Dairy Relief Fast Acting (9,000 - 27,000)
Enzymedica Lacto (9,500)
Equate (Wal-Mart) Fast Acting Dairy Digestive Supplement (9,000 - 27,000)
Garden of Life Raw Enzymes (1,890 - 5,670)
KAL Lactase Enzyme (250)
Kirkland (Costco) Signature Fast Acting Lactase (9,000 - 27,000)
Lactaid Fast Act (9,000 - 27,000)
Natural Factors Lactase Enzyme 9,000
Nature’s Plus Say Yes to Dairy (3,000)
Puritan’s Pride Lactase Enzyme (1,750 - 5,250)
Solgar Lactase 3500 (3,500)
Source Naturals Lactase Digest (3,000 - 9,000)
Zygest Lactase Enzyme (1,750 - 5,250)


One liquid lactase:

Lacteeze

The three lactose-free milks:

Lactaid Fat-Free Milk,
Land O Lakes Dairy Ease
Organic Valley Lactose-Free Organic Fat Free Milk


All the lactase pills made their approved list, which as far as I can tell means only that they contain the amount of lactase that the manufacturers claimed.

There are other factors just as important. Tops on that list is whether the amount of lactase is sufficient for your needs. That's a touchy subject. Although the report cites a few studies, the truth is that nobody really knows what amount of lactase to recommend for the simple reason that each person is different. Some people seem to need only a basic minimum amount of lactase; others report requiring multiple pills. How your system reacts to the lactose in food varies with every mouthful. It's a frustratingly impossible subject to research. Over the years, however, the standard in the marketplace has been that a basic pill contains 3,000 units and an "extra-strength" pill contains 9,000. You might be able to get by with a smaller quantity, but I have always stated that anything below 1,000 units is a worthless waste of money. The KAL pill wouldn't make my approved list. In addition, the lactase in it is just one of a mixture of other digestive enzymes and I don't know if any of them are useful or in the right quantities. I never recommend any pills that contain such a mix. Garden of Life Raw Enzymes and Enzymedica Lacto also are mixes and not recommended by me. ConsumerLab noted that they are also the most expensive products per unit. As you would expect, the Costco and Walmart brand products were the cheapest at 8 and 12 cents per 9,000 units. Chewable tablets were slightly more expensive, Lactaid Fast Acting Vanilla Twist Flavor at 20 cents and CVS Pharmacy Dairy Relief Fast Acting Vanilla Twist Flavor at 21 cents, but some people - kids especially - may prefer them. The health food store brands were consistently more expensive.

So what about Lacteeze? Well, lactase pills are meant to be taken along with food to counteract the lactose in them. They work in your digestive tract. Lactase liquid, on the other hand, is a completely different type of lactase that is designed to be added to milk or other liquid dairy products and "digest" the lactase before it reaches your mouth. That's what Lacteeze liquid is. (Lacteeze, which is a Canadian product, also makes pills, which evidently were not tested.) I've recommended Lacteeze for years, because they came to our rescue when all the American brands of liquid lactase went off the market. I've never heard any complaints about them, although I always warn people that nothing works for everybody. I simply can't imagine why ConsumerLab couldn't find lactase in the Lacteeze bottle. Could their tests simply not be designed to find that variety of lactase? It's a mystery. I'm very hesitant to steer people away from a product that been a major company for decades on the basis of this odd finding.

Lactose-free milk, of course, is made by adding liquid lactase to regular milk. The process is similar to what you can do at home, although it is scaled up to industrial levels. All three milks in the test had lactose levels below what their test labs could detect. That doesn't necessarily mean absolutely zero, but so close that any difference is meaningless. All were about the same price, although the organic milk was a bit higher. The claim that one milk - Dairy Ease - didn't provide "a significant amount of vitamin D" is bizarre and possibly spurious. In reality, that meant that the carton didn't say how much much vitamin D was present and so they read that as zero even though Dairy Ease stated that vitamin D was added. That's shoddy work at best.

Overall, the report yields results pretty much exactly what I would expect. Store brands are cheaper than name brands, and mainstream brands more expensive than natural food items. Buy pills either as cheap as you can find, in whatever form you like, or pay a little more for the convenience of buying them where you usually shop. Lactase is lactase, as long as you buy sufficient quantities of it and that's all you're buying.

I'll try to investigate the strange finding about Lacteeze.

Liquid Lactase on Sale at eBay

Despite all the anguish from a few whenever liquid lactase drops vanish from the American market, the sad reality is that not enough people buy them.

I posted last year that Remko Hiemstra, a Dutch manufacturer of lactase, had made Disolact liquid lactase available through eBay.

The bad news is that it didn't sell as well as he hoped. The good news is that he is putting the last 200 bottles up for sale on eBay at a reduced "buy now" price of $4.50 plus $2.00 shipping.

Go to eBay to make a purchase. You can also enter in a lower bid.

Disolact Lactase Drops

When I wrote yesterday about a new source of lactase drops, it reminded that a year or so ago I told you of a source of Lacteeze drops from Canada available through eBay.

Don't bother going back and finding that post. The link is dead and you can't get Lacteeze through eBay. But Pat Gilbers, the same entrepreneur who sold the Lacteeze is back with a different foreign lactase drop product, Disolact.

Gilbers (a Ben Gilbers is actually the contact listed there) has a minimalist web site at LactoseSolutions.com. And if you go to eBay and enter in "lactase drops" you'll see two hits, one of which is for Disolact. (The other is for Lactaid lactase drops from a Canadian seller.)

Disolact is made by Disolut, a Dutch firm. Fortunately, their lactase drops page is in English.

With DISOLACT® lactase drops you can make 56 litres of ordinary milk lactase arm. But also whipped cream and custard!

DISOLACT® lactase drops are packed per 14 ml. in a drop-bottle.

How to use DISOLACT® lactase drops?

DISOLACT® lactase drops (standard 5 drops per litre of milk) have to be added to the milk (product). Shake so that the lactase mixes with the milk (product). After this you place the milk (product) in the refrigerator, after 24 hours more than 92% of the lactose has been digested.

If you go to any of Pat Gilbers' pages, the shipping will be from St. Louis.

Those of you in Europe who want to buy Disolact, it is available in Euros from their website.

New Source of Lactase Drops

The coming and going of lactase drops in the U.S. has been an ongoing saga for many years. The last news I had was bad. I had to inform you that Pharmax Liquid Lactase Drops were no longer being available.

That meant that while lactase could still be imported from Canada, where the Lacteeze and Lactaid brands are available from a number of internet retailers, the convenience of not needing to get mail across borders was lacking.

Then Benjamin Lynch sent me a welcome email.

I used to provide the Liquid Lactase by Pharmax but, as you may know, it no longer exists.

No one has access to Liquid Lactase anymore which is why I manufactured our own Lactase Drops.

It arrived last week at our distribution center.

Lactase Drops took me months to develop as I was strict in ensuring its effectiveness and purity. We had to redo the formula a few times in order to get it strong and effective. I found it is very difficult to make but we got it.

You may find it here:
www.healthegoods.com/lactase-drops-liquid-lactase-enzyme-supplement.html.

There are quite a few Q and A there already which I have answered. Please read them as they should answer quite a few of your questions.

Here's a partial quote from that page.

Lactase Drops digests lactose so you may enjoy dairy once again. Only $0.29 to make a pint of lactose-free milk. Makes up to 94 pints, 45 liters or 12 gallons of lactose-free milk. Laboratory tested for effectiveness and purity. Made in a GMP Certified facility in Canada according to the strict rules of Health Canada.

The product appears to be repackaged Lacteeze drops. I've always had great admiration for Gelda Scientific, the company that makes Lacteeze drops and which waged a campaign to keep them available in America through mail order after Lactaid stopped making them here. I'd be happy to recommend any company that offers Lacteeze.

So I'm going to give a very cautious recommendation that you purchase these lactase drops if you don't want any hassle in getting them from Canada.

I dislike the general tone of the HealthE Goods site. You can't cure all those dozens of ailments or alleviate all those symptoms with over-the-counter remedies. But you can say exactly the same thing of a GNC store or any pharmacy. I'm old fashioned that way. And I have to admit that I do buy certain products at pharmacies or GNC and all the similar stores. The secret is to pick your products and stick to them.

So with that said, it's good to see lactase drops easily available in the U.S. once more.

Lactase Drops: Downbeat Update

I recently wrote about Pharmax Liquid Lactase Drops being unavailable. I wasn't sure then whether that meant only a temporary problem, though.

No sure luck. Another site that featured the drops from their very introduction has bad news. The IBS Treatment Center site wrote:

Liquid Lactase Drops

This product has been discontinued. The manufacturer indicates they hope to replace it with a new product but the schedule for release is not currently available.

Sorry, everyone. I'll try to get word of any new product out as soon as it's available.

In the meantime, there's always Canada.

Lactase Drops: A New Crisis?

Remember how excited I was when I was able to announce just two years ago Huge News! Lactase Drops Return to U.S. In that post I talked about Pharmax Liquid Lactase, a company from Washington, that was making lactase and distributing in the U.S.

Oops. If you go to search for the drops on Amazon you see this:

Currently unavailable.
We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock.

If you go to any other site that lists Pharmax lactase drops you'll see an equivalent disclaimer, saying that it is "backordered" or "out of stock."

I can't find any information on why this should be, although I do see at the Pharmax LLC site that in

May 2009, Pharmax LLC, previously owned by Dr Nigel Plummer, was acquired by Seroyal USA Inc. The merger has brought together three strong and functionally distinct brands, Pharmax, Genestra and Unda.

I don't know whether the parent company decided to stop selling the drops or this is just a temporary production problem. Pharmax had one of those but then resumed making the drops.

What if they don't?

For Americans, the best bet is to get them from Canada. Both Lactaid and Lacteeze brands can easily be found from a number of sellers by doing a search on lactase drops. Lots of people bought them from Canada before they popped up in the U.S. again and I guess we can go back to the old ways if necessary.

Lactase Drops vs. Lactase Pills

Buying a lactase pill is easy. Go into any supermarket, or pharmacy, or discount store, or even most convenience stores and you'll find them in all sizes, shapes, spending ranges, and states of chewability. You can slip them into your pocket and have them available at any moment to pop into your mouth with food.

So wouldn't it be great if you could just crumble them up and put them in your milk for later use?

But you can't.

The reason is that lactase is not as simple as lactose. All lactose is exactly the same. It's a disaccharide, a combination of two simple sugars, with only a couple of dozen atoms and a single arrangement.

Lactase is an enzyme, which means it's a protein. Proteins are huge and complex. The lactase protein can be found in nature in hundreds of forms and hundreds more can be made in a lab or can be created by using yeasts to form them in cultures. Each individual form of lactase will work to split - or digest - the lactose disaccharide into its simpler component parts. But each works best at a different temperature and different acidity and other variables.

Food scientists use these variables to make lactase for commercial use. Specifically, the lactase that is used in lactase pills is designed to stay stable in the heat and high acidity of a human stomach, where the pH is around 2 (range: 1 to 3.5).

The lactase that is used in lactase drops, on the other hand, is designed to be used when added to refrigerated milk and in almost neutral acidity. The acidity of milk is around 6.7. That's a bigger difference than it might seem at first. Each point on the pH scale is ten times more acid than the next. That means that the stomach is around 100,000 times as acid as milk.

One type of lactase just can't be substituted for the other. They will work poorly if at all.

At least we have both.

Or do we? That's tomorrow's topic.

The Lacteeze Store

I posted about a month ago, in Lacteeze Drops Now Available Through eBay, that Pat Gilbers was planning to be the first U.S. distributor for Lacteeze brand lactase, formerly available only in Canada. Lacteeze is an important name because it makes the liquid lactase drops to be used directly in milk and other liquid dairy products to reduce the lactose content as well as the solid lactase tablets.

I also promised then to let you know the minute Gilbers' Lacteeze Store website officially opened. That's today.




The site is pretty straightforward. There are three products: Lacteeze Drops (in two sizes), Lacteeze Tablets, and Lacteeze Chewable Children's' Tablets. The children's' tablets are strawberry flavored.

You order them through the website.

Voilà.

Let me know if you try the site.

Lacteeze Drops Now Available Through eBay

Pat Gilbers sent me an email with exciting news for the lactose intolerant. He's making Lacteeze brand lactase drops available in the U.S.

Lacteeze is a major Canadian brand of lactase in tablet form, chewable tablets for children, and drops for adding to liquids and removing the lactose. They were the only brand available to North American buyers for years after Lactaid pulled out of the market. The people at their manufacturer, Gelda Scientific, graciously worked with me to ensure that people could find their order form through my website.

Here's what I have on my website, direct from Gelda:

Lacteeze Lactase drops are very convenient to use. Just add 5 drops to 1 litre or 1 quart of milk or other fluid milk products, mix and leave in the refrigerator for 24 hours. This will convert 70-80% of the lactose in the dairy product. If symptoms of lactose intolerance persist, refrigerate for additional 24 hrs (total of 48 hours) or increase the dose to 8-10 drops. This will convert at least 90% of the lactose. If symptoms still persist please consult your doctor.

May be used to reduce lactose in fresh milk, reconstituted milk, canned condensed milk, creams, chocolate milk and any other fluid milk products.

Product Shelf Life: Shelf life of the product is 15 months at room temperature from the date of manufacturing. If the product is kept refrigerated upon receipt you can extend the shelf life by additional 6 months.

Of course, it was less convenient for those in the U.S. to have to order drops from Canada.

That's going to change. Pat is starting a website, LacteezeStore.com, so that you can order them and stay within the country. He'll be the first Lacteeze distributor in the U.S. Don't go there yet. I've been sitting on this news because the site is not up and running.

In the meantime, Pat let me know that he's put Lacteeze onto eBay. Just type Lacteeze into the search bar. You can buy it in quantities of 3, 6, 9, or 12 bottles.

I'll let you know as soon as the Lacteeze Store site goes live.

New European Maker of Lactase Products

Remko Hiemstra, the owner and founder, emailed me to let me know about DISOLUT® (DIetary SOLUTions), founded last July 2008.

He's lactose intolerant himself and so he created the firm knowing about the need for more lactase products in Europe. He's starting with DISOLACT® lactase capsules. In a few months he also plans to introduce DISOLACT®-drops, lactase drops.

For now the company only sells through the Internet and though some Dutch pharmacies. He hopes to increase the availability in the future.

The Dutch lactose intolerance site Lactolerant.nl did a review of the product for those of you who speak Dutch.

He does have an English language site www.disolut.com and you can order a free 3 capsule sample from that site.

Kosher Certified Lactase Drops

It was huge news when I was able to announce earlier this year that lactase drops were once again available in the U.S.

That's great, but it was insufficient news for some people who needed more information. I received a question today asking me if any lactase drops were kosher certified.

After much searching, I've found that both the Lacteeze Enzyme Drops made and sold in Canada by Gelda Pharmaceutical and the LACTAID® Lactase Enzyme Drops made and sold in Canada by McNeil specifically say that they are kosher-certified on those web pages I linked to.

Both can be ordered from a number of Canadian pharmacies and online sites.

Unfortunately, Pharmax Liquid Lactase, the brand that is sold in the U.S., does not have a kosher certification.

Lactase Drops and What to Drop Them In

Now that lactase drops are available for direct sale in the U.S. once again, I'm beginning to get more questions about their use.

Drops were the original form of lactase on the market. (Well, technically, lactase powder was the original form, but people didn't like dealing with powder.) The idea was simple. You added lactase to milk, the lactase split (digested) the lactose into the simpler sugars glucose and galactose, and you drank the milk. Voilà. No symptoms.

Except that like most miracle cures (as seen on TV) it didn't always seem to work quite as well in your own refrigerator as the directions made you hope. There's always a trade-off. It takes time for the lactase to work, and the milk has to be kept cold through the process. The more lactase you used, the faster it worked, but then you used up the bottle quicker. And was that one big drop or two little ones that just squeezed out together?

With time came convenience. Companies made 100% lactose-free milk and other lactose-free dairy products available in dairy cases everywhere. Lactase pills allowed you to have dairy without waiting for it. Slowly the drops market shrank, until nobody in the U.S. sold drops at all.

For all their faults, drops still have a number of advantages that kept people fans all these dry years (often mail-ordering them from Canada, where they never left the shelves). Store-bought lactose free milk can cost up to twice that of regular milk. Drops are a much cheaper way to get lactose free goodness, especially now with the prices of all foods rising. Lactose free milk is slightly sweeter than regular milk, so you can adjust the number of drops you use to regulate the taste for your personal taste buds. Drops can be used in any liquid dairy product. Those other lactose-free dairy products never sold really well either, which makes them hard to find in many places.

Nursing mothers whose babies become temporarily lactose intolerant, say from a "stomach flu" or gastrointestinal illness, can express their milk, add drops, and nurse their babies with it a day or two later without having to resort to formulas until their intestines heal.

Some limitations remain. Drops still need to be thoroughly stirred into a liquid and stored cold. And that means you can't use drops in cooking. While you can start with a lactose-free milk, you can't expect to mix the lactase drops into cooked pudding or cakes and get good results.

Different brands have slightly different instructions as well. If you're trying a new brand I'd advise you to start with what they tell you to do. However, the trade-off between more drops and faster work remains. You can decide for yourself which route you want to follow once you're sure you have the basics down.

Huge News! Lactase Drops Return to U.S.

Lactase is the enzyme that digests lactose. Virtually all humans make lactase at birth so that they can digest the lactose in breastmilk. Starting at about three, the age of normal weaning, humans, like almost every other mammal, naturally stop producing lactase. It's just not needed.

Not having lactase results in lactose intolerance, the name for having symptoms when you drink or eat any dairy product that contains lactose, which is most of them.

Wouldn't it be great if scientists could figure out a way to artificially manufacture lactase?

Back in the 1970s, a Dutch company named Gist-Brocades did exactly that. Along the way they discovered something fascinating and important. It all has to do with digestion.

The human stomach is highly acidic. Hydrochloric acid is produced to help digest and break down food. Stomach acid could burn holes in your shirt if it leaked out.

Lactase is made in the small intestine, under conditions that are far less acidic. In fact, if you swallow lactase it won't work. The stomach acid will destroy it.

So the first product that Gist-Brocade made was a lactase that was designed to be put directly into milk. Milk is less acid than the stomach, so if you just let it sit in the refrigerator for a day or two, the lactase would break down all the lactose, making it safe to drink.

It took several years and much tinkering to come up with a form of lactase that could withstand the acid in stomachs and several more before a lactase pill entered the American market. Lactaid introduced the lactase pill in 1984 and the lactose intolerance rejoiced. (I sure did.)

For many years, Lactaid, its competitor Dairy Ease, and other firms made both lactase pills and a liquid lactase that could be dropped into milk or other liquid or soft dairy products. Lactase drops never took off in the marketplace. Americans love convenience and immediate gratification. I eventually had to break the bad news to Americans that the only way to get lactase drops was to import them from Canada. Gelda Scientific, the firm that made the lactase for the Canadian brand Lacteeze, graciously worked with me to make contact information available. See my Lactase Drops page (now revised, obviously) to order them

And that was it.

Until this week, when I received an email from Brian C. He gave me the amazing news that he could get liquid lactase drops from the online store of
IBS Treatment Center in Seattle, Washington or The Center for Food Allergies, same address.

Liquid Lactase is the only liquid source of lactase available and is appropriate for anyone with lactose intolerance, including infants. This dropper bottle is the perfect solution at home and on the go for alleviating digestive problems associated with lactose intolerance. Lactase is an enzyme that hydrolyses (breaks down) the lactose in milk and milk products into glucose and galactose, two forms of simple sugars that can be digested and tolerated by lactose intolerant individuals. Liquid Lactase can be taken directly or added to dairy products prior to consumption.

Liquid Lactase Drops contains: 15 milliliters of lactase in solution. Non-active ingredients: purified water and glycerol.

Suggested Dosage: General guideline: Add five drops of Liquid Lactase to one pint (568 ml) of milk and refrigerate for 24 hours. Use as ordinary milk. Each 15 ml bottle is able to convert approximately 75 pints of milk. Alternatively, five drops can be taken directly in water or juice prior to consumption of dairy products.

Liquid Lactase Drops: $14.95

Do they work? Brian said:

We have used them to successfully treat milk (it tastes better to me than Lactaid milk), buttermilk, yogurt, and even cream cheese. ... My fiancée is extremely sensitive to lactose, and we have found this stuff to be amazing. She doesn't have any problem eating or drinking foods treated properly.

Some investigation found that these drops are made by Pharmax LLC.

Pharmax LLC, a privately owned company, was established in 1998 as a strategic alliance between highly experienced American healthcare professionals and Cultech Limited, the prime nutritional supplement development and manufacturing company in the U.K. Cultech is the market-leading provider of research-driven nutraceuticals to healthcare professionals in U.K and within Europe as a whole.

Pharmax Liquid Lactase is not limited to Seattle. I found it on Amazon.com for $11.30 a bottle.

Other outlets may exist that I haven't found yet. As always, I am not endorsing either the product or the sellers, just passing along information.

While I was searching, though, I found lactase drops in other countries as well so I'll list several here for completeness.



Canada.


Lactaid Drops for Milk.






Australia.


Lacteeze Drops





United Kingdom.


BioCare Lactase Enzyme.