What’s Safe, What’s Not

In this section you’ll find 2 really useful lists:

1.  List of food products that 100% all the time mean milk

(completely avoid if dairy allergic)

2.  Ingredients and items that can mean milk some of the time.– You confused yet?! Yea, me too! (Especially call these manufacturers to make sure their ingredients are not dairy derived.)

Ya’ll, You all, You Guys, Youse Guys, Yous.  All different ways American’s pluralize  ‘you’.  Confusing to English language learner? You bet!

Just like we have different ways to say the same word, there are various ingredients that are in fact ‘milk’  but titled differently.

Here’s a list ingredients you should completely avoid they are 100% milk in disguise!

  • artificial butter flavor

  • bovine casein

  • butter

  • butter fat

  • butter oil

  • butter acid

  • butter ester(s)

  • buttermilk

  • casein

  • casein hydrolysate

  • caseinates (all forms: ammonia, calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium)

  • cheese

  • cheesecake

  • cottage cheese

  • cream

  • curds

  • custard

  • deli meats (freshly sliced from the deli have an extremely high likelihood of being cross contaminated with cheese since that too is sliced there and sometimes on the same machine.)

  • diacetyl

  • Galactooligosaccharides

  • ghee

  • half-and-half

  • hydrolysates (casein, milk protein, protein, whey, whey protein)

  • Kefir

  • Koumiss

  • lactalbumin

  • lactalbumin phosophate

  • lactoferrin

  • lactose

  • lactulose

  • milk (all animal forms: condensed milk, milk derivatives, dry milk, evaporated milk, goat’s milk, milk from other animals, lowfat milk, malted milk, milkfat, nonfat milk, milk powder, milk protein, skimmed milk, solid milk, whole milk, milk protein hydrolysate)

  • nougat

  • paneer

  • pudding

  • Recaldent

  • rennet casein

  • sour cream

  • sour cream solids

  • sour milk solids

  • tagatose

  • whey (all forms including: delactosed, demineralized, hydrolysate, protein concentrate, sweet)

  •   yogurt

Batman or Bruce Wayne? We don’t really know.

Anything can have milk in it, but these items are some of the most shocking. These products below can sometimes have milk in them.

  • alcohol

  • bakery goods

  • bird seed 

  • buttons (I’m not joking.  Milk glass buttons are real, but thankfully pretty uncommon.)

  • cake decorations (sprinkles, eatable decor etc..)

  • caramel/caramel candies

  • caramel coloring

  • chalk (as of 7/2016 Crayola Sidewalk Chalk is safe, 100% dairy free- but other brands can sometimes have milk in the chalk.)

  • chapstick/lipstick/lipgloss

  • creamer (coffee)

  • chocolate flavorings (natural/artificial)

  • cosmetics/makeup

  • culture & other bacterial cultures

  • formula

  • frozen vegetables (milk is commonly used as a ‘rinsing’ agent for the veggies.)

  • Gatorade/sports drinks

  • hand sanitizers (Bath & Body Works hand sanitizers contain lactose= milk.)

  • high protein flour

  • hot dogs

  • juices (I’ve actually seen juice companies “calcium fortify” juices and add lactic acid in doing so! ekk!)

  • lactic acid

  • lactic acid starter

  • latex (including balloons, gloves etc..- the powdery residue on them can sometimes be powdered milk)

  • lotions

  • lunch meat (prepackaged)

  • margarine

  • meal replacement shakes

  • meat (all forms)

  • medication (be especially cautious of pills and inhalers, most pills and inhalers use lactose as a binding agent, lactose=milk.  Always, always call the manufactures.  We’ve had so many times where I thought something was safe and then I call to find out that it wasn’t safe.)

  • nisin

  • nondairy products (yes, they can say non-dairy and still have dairy in them.  Coffee creamers are notorious for this.)

  • paint (yes, this is a thing. Milk paint is a up and coming medium used by many.)

  • Pedialyte (The newer Pedialyte Advanced Care flavors use prebiotics= Galactooligosaccharides= milk . As of 7/2016 Pedialyte Freezer Pops and Pedialyte orginal liters are dairy free.)

  • pet food/treats

  • probiotics (as of 7/2016 Cultrelle Kids powdered packets are completely dairy free, we use daily)

  • shaving cream

  • simplesse

  • soaps (all forms including: handsoaps, shampoo, conditioner, pet soaps, dish soaps, bar soaps, baby soaps)

  • sausage

  • spices

  • starter distillate

  • starter culture(s)

  • toothpaste

  • vaccines (Yes, I mentioned the ever-dreaded topic, but for very good reason! I am a proudly vaccinating parent and have HUGE concern because as of 7/2016 ALL current DTAP manufactures use milk starter cultures to grow a portion of the vaccine.  This means a huge population of kids go at risk with unknowingly receiving this vaccine or going unprotected due to dairy allergies.  The FDA publishes all ingredient inserts on their website-the ingredients can vary by lot number so I urge you to check with the insert that comes specifically with the vaccine you receive.  Here the info from GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, one of the manufactures of the DTAP vaccine theirs is called:  INFANRIX. On that page you’ll see a downloadable PDF of the product insert, I’ve also linked for that here. On page 13 of that PDF you’ll see the ‘Description’ with bovine casein (=milk) listed as an ingredient. This is such a huge issue, I really hope manufactures see the need for this to change ASAP- end rant)

  • wipes (all forms including: baby wipes, cleaning wipes)

Check out Favorite Finds  for our go-to 100% dairy free products.