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Probably more than you think, and in places you wouldn’t guess. Look up what you eat and see how close it gets to the point where symptoms start.
Look up a foodEvery number sourced · Updated September 2026
Stay under it and you’re very unlikely to notice anything, even if you’re lactose intolerant. It’s the cutoff dietitians use for low-lactose foods, including on the low-FODMAP diet for IBS. It counts per serving, so a meal with a few dairy foods gets past it fast.
Varney et al., 2017 · Monash FODMAPAbout a cup of milk. Most lactose-intolerant people can handle this much in one go, with mild symptoms or none. Much more than that and symptoms get likely.
NIH Consensus Conference, 2010140 foods and drinks, from your morning latte to a wedge of parmesan. Search one, or browse by type.
Everything, most lactose first. The top of this list is where your day's lactose really comes from.
93 of 140 at 1 g or more17 of 140 at 12 g or more
Almost everything here starts out as milk. What happens next decides how much lactose is left.
When milk turns into cheese, most of the lactose leaves with the liquid whey. The curd keeps the protein and fat. Soft cheeses hold on to more of that liquid, so they keep more lactose.
McSweeney 2004Cheese cultures eat the lactose left in the curd within days, not months. By the time a hard cheese reaches the store, there’s little or none left.
McSweeney 2004 · Facioni 2020Greek yogurt is strained, and some lactose drains out with the whey, about 25% less per gram. “Greek-style” yogurts are often thickened with added protein instead, so they don’t get the cut.
USDA FDC 2259793 · 2259794Lactose dissolves in the watery part of milk, not the fat. The fattier the dairy, the less lactose it carries. That’s why butter barely registers.
USDA FDC 170859 · Frida #1052Take water out of milk and the lactose that’s left gets concentrated. Evaporated milk has about twice as much per gram as regular milk. Milk powder has far more.
USDA FDC 171276Dairies add lactase, the same enzyme in milktab, and it breaks the lactose down before the carton is sealed. milktab does the same job with whatever you’re already eating.
How milktab worksDekker 2019In a 1993 study, people who have trouble digesting lactose drank 20 g of it in milk, with and without lactase. With lactase, they had far less breath hydrogen (the sign of undigested lactose) and milder symptoms. At 50 g, about four cups of milk at once, the effect was too small to be statistically significant.
Something we didn’t cover? Write to contact@milktab.com.
Yes. The 1 g limit is per serving, but your gut deals with the whole meal. Coffee with half & half, a slice of pizza and a scoop of ice cream add up to nearly 5 g.
Labels show total sugar, not lactose. For plain milk, those are the same thing. For sweetened yogurt, ice cream or chocolate, the label counts the added sugar too.
Almost. A tablespoon has about 0.1 g, well under the low-lactose limit.
Lower, not low. A ¾-cup serving still has about 4 g, four times the low-lactose limit.
Close enough. It’s regular milk with lactase added, so the lactose is broken down before it reaches you.
Not when it comes to lactose. Both have about as much as regular milk. A2 only changes one of milk’s proteins.
Only if lactose is one of your triggers. Monash University, the team behind the low-FODMAP diet, says people with IBS only need to cut back if they also react to lactose. A breath test or a dietitian-led elimination diet can tell you.
Every number on this page comes from one of these. Tap a food in the ladder to see its exact source.
27,000 FCC units of lactase in one tab
Three times the lactase in Lactaid Fast Act. Take one at the start of your meal and eat what you came for.