Lactose Content of Foods: The Full Chart (g per serve)

Q: What food has the most lactose?

Skim milk powder is the most concentrated everyday source at roughly 50 g per 100 g. Among foods you drink or eat as-is, milk is highest — about 12 g of lactose in a 250 mL glass.

Q: Which dairy foods are lowest in lactose?

Butter, ghee and aged hard cheeses — cheddar, parmesan, swiss, gouda — are near zero, because their lactose drains off with the whey and what little remains is broken down during ageing.

Q: Is there lactose in cheese?

It depends on the cheese. Aged hard cheeses (cheddar, parmesan) are essentially lactose-free, while fresh cheeses (ricotta, cottage cheese, cream cheese) hold more. The longer a cheese is aged, the less lactose it has.

Q: Why is yoghurt often easier to tolerate than milk?

Yoghurt contains a similar amount of lactose per 100 g to milk, but its live bacterial cultures pre-digest some of it and keep helping once eaten — so many people tolerate it better than the raw figure suggests.

Q: How much lactose can a lactose-intolerant person handle?

It varies a lot by person, but many people tolerate around 12–15 g of lactose a day — roughly a glass of milk — especially spread across the day and eaten with other food. Learning your own threshold is the key.

Milk & fresh dairy

Food	Per 100 g / mL	Per typical serve	Band
Whole (full-cream) milk	4.6–4.9	~12 g (250 mL glass)	High
Skim milk	4.8–5.1	~12–13 g (250 mL)	High
Lactose-free milk	<0.1	~0.1 g (250 mL)	None
Goat milk	4.1–4.5	~10–11 g (250 mL)	High
Buttermilk (cultured)	3.5–4.5	~9–11 g (250 mL)	High
Evaporated milk concentrated — high per 100 mL	9–13	~3 g (30 mL in coffee)	Mod
Condensed milk (sweetened) used generously in desserts, so it adds up fast	~10–13	~2–3 g (20 g)	Mod
Skim milk powder	~50–52	~13 g (25 g, makes a glass)	High
Cream (pure / thickened)	2.5–3.4	~0.8–1 g (30 mL)	Low
Sour cream	2–4	~0.6–1.2 g (30 g)	Low
Crème fraîche	2.4–3.5	~0.7–1 g (30 g)	Low

Yoghurt & cultured

Food	Per 100 g / mL	Per typical serve	Band
Natural / plain yoghurt live cultures aid digestion — often better tolerated than the raw figure suggests	3.8–4.7	~8–9 g (200 g tub)	High
Greek yoghurt (strained) straining removes some lactose-carrying whey	2.2–3.0	~4–6 g (200 g)	Mod
Kefir active fermentation lowers the real figure	~4 (nominal)	~10 g (250 mL)	High

Cheese — fresh & soft

Food	Per 100 g / mL	Per typical serve	Band
Cottage cheese	1.8–3	~2–3 g (100 g)	Mod
Ricotta whey-based, so retains more than other soft cheeses	1–5	~0.5–2.5 g (50 g)	Low
Cream cheese	2–3.6	~0.6–1.1 g (30 g)	Low
Mascarpone	3–4	~0.9–1.2 g (30 g)	Low
Mozzarella	0.3–1	~0.1–0.3 g (30 g)	None
Feta (brined) some databases list feta higher (~4 g/100 g); brined feta is generally trace	0.1–0.5	~0.1 g (30 g)	None
Halloumi limited data	0.5–1.8	~0.3–0.9 g (50 g)	Low
Brie / Camembert mould-ripening consumes the lactose	<0.1	~0 g (30 g)	None

Cheese — aged & hard

Food	Per 100 g / mL	Per typical serve	Band
Cheddar (aged)	<0.1	~0 g (30 g slice)	None
Parmesan	<0.1	~0 g (30 g)	None
Swiss / Emmental	<0.1	~0 g (30 g)	None
Gouda (aged)	<0.1	~0 g (30 g)	None
Edam	<0.1	~0 g (30 g)	None

Butter & fats

Food	Per 100 g / mL	Per typical serve	Band
Butter	0.02–0.9	~0.05 g (10 g pat)	None
Ghee milk solids removed — essentially lactose-free	~0.003	~0 g	None

Frozen

Food	Per 100 g / mL	Per typical serve	Band
Ice cream	3–8	~5–6 g (2 scoops, ~100 g)	High
Gelato higher milk-solids than ice cream	~6	~6 g (100 g)	High
Sorbet (true, dairy-free) sherbet differs — often contains some milk	0	0 g	None

Chocolate & sweets

Food	Per 100 g / mL	Per typical serve	Band
Milk chocolate	5–9	~2–3.6 g (40 g row)	Mod
Dark chocolate brand-dependent; check for "may contain milk"	0–1.5	~0–0.6 g (40 g)	None
White chocolate built on milk solids; varies widely	2–8	~1–3 g (40 g)	Mod

Protein powders & other

Food	Per 100 g / mL	Per typical serve	Band
Whey protein concentrate	4–8	~1.2–2.4 g (30 g scoop)	Low
Whey protein isolate	0.5–1	~0.2–0.3 g (30 g)	None
Casein / caseinate	0.1–1	<0.3 g (30 g)	None
Custard (dairy, ready-made) estimate from milk content	~3–5	~3–5 g (100 g)	Mod

Plant-based (for comparison)

Food	Per 100 g / mL	Per typical serve	Band
Soy milk	0	0 g	None
Almond milk	0	0 g	None
Oat milk	0	0 g	None

How to read these numbers

Content isn't the same as tolerance. Yoghurt and kefir contain lactose, but their live cultures help digest it — many people handle them better than milk. Aged cheeses test near-zero on modern analysis even though older charts list them higher.
Ranges are real. Ice cream, chocolate, soft cheeses and protein powders vary a lot by brand and recipe, so we show a range rather than a false single number. For a specific product, the on-pack nutrition panel is your best guide.
Dose is what matters. Most people with lactose intolerance can handle some lactose — often ~12–15 g a day, spread out and eaten with food. It's the size of a single hit that usually triggers symptoms.

Common questions

What food has the most lactose?

Skim milk powder is the most concentrated everyday source at roughly 50 g per 100 g. Among foods you drink or eat as-is, milk is highest — about 12 g of lactose in a 250 mL glass.

Which dairy foods are lowest in lactose?

Butter, ghee and aged hard cheeses — cheddar, parmesan, swiss, gouda — are near zero, because their lactose drains off with the whey and what little remains is broken down during ageing.

Is there lactose in cheese?

It depends on the cheese. Aged hard cheeses (cheddar, parmesan) are essentially lactose-free, while fresh cheeses (ricotta, cottage cheese, cream cheese) hold more. The longer a cheese is aged, the less lactose it has.

Why is yoghurt often easier to tolerate than milk?

Yoghurt contains a similar amount of lactose per 100 g to milk, but its live bacterial cultures pre-digest some of it and keep helping once eaten — so many people tolerate it better than the raw figure suggests.

How much lactose can a lactose-intolerant person handle?

It varies a lot by person, but many people tolerate around 12–15 g of lactose a day — roughly a glass of milk — especially spread across the day and eaten with other food. Learning your own threshold is the key.

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Sources & method

Figures are compiled from food-composition databases and peer-reviewed analyses, shown as ranges where sources differ. Bands are assigned by grams of lactose per typical serve: None under 0.5 g · Low 0.5–2 g · Moderate 2–5 g · High over 5 g. This is general information, not medical advice.

Portnoi PJ & MacDonald A (2015). The Lactose and Galactose Content of Cheese Suitable for Galactosaemia, JIMD Reports — HPAEC-PAD analysis showing aged hard cheeses, butter and ghee are effectively lactose-free. springer.com
Shakerdi L. et al. (2022). Determination of the lactose and galactose content of common foods, Food Science & Nutrition 10(11) — butter, yoghurt and processed-cheese figures. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
USDA FoodData Central — milk, skim milk and goat milk values. fdc.nal.usda.gov
Food Standards Australia New Zealand — Australian Food Composition Database (AFCD), the authoritative Australian reference. foodstandards.gov.au
Ohio State University Extension — Lactose Content of Foods fact sheet (banded per-serve figures). fcs.osu.edu
foodintolerances.org — lactose content of food (based on the Souci-Fachmann-Kraut food-composition tables). foodintolerances.org
Lacteeze Australia — Lactose Content of Common Foods (Australian-facing table). lacteeze.com.au

Notes on uncertainty: brined feta is listed at trace levels by cheese-chemistry sources, though some databases (e.g. USDA) list it higher — treat feta as low-but-check. Custard, casein and whey figures rely partly on manufacturer data and vary by product grade. For an exact Australian figure on a specific food, look it up in the FSANZ AFCD or check the product's own nutrition panel.

Lactose content of foods