This is really a thing ive been wondering about USA… Dont you have lactose free products? I mean, if the tiny Nordics can and do produce lactose free versions of pretty much everything, in pretty much every possible place, why cant you?
Is it a sadism/eugenics thing (kidding but not 100% kidding)?
One interesting thing about lactose free products is, that most aren’t lactose free. They only contain the enzymes to digest the lactose. If you are lactose intolerant this is perfectly fine, but if you’re allergic to lactose it doesn’t change anything for you
I‘m not from the US (Germany) and neither have I much experience with lactose free products. I know someone who is allergic to lactose though and when I was buying stuff for him he told me the exact brand of stuff I needed to get due to the issue I mentioned.
True enough - I have to very careful when visiting local Lidls and browsing their products (though Finnish Lidls tend stock a lot of local lactose free stuff, luckily), else one invites the shitrocket.
But again this invites my query, invoked earlier on another comment in this thread - Germany is a much larger market with lots of immigration and the tech exists. Why not sell it to people, when there is also volume available?
Like most “but why US” questions, the answer starts with ‘M’ and rhymes with ‘oney’.
The dairy lobby is powerful in the US, for reasons I’ve never bothered to look into the few times one of their tantrums end up on the news.
It’s a matter of the Nexus of regulatory capture, unrestricted money in politics, and historic Inertia is my surface understanding of why ‘Dairy’ is such a bristly thing here.
Dairy’s really got their power in the 1940’s-1950’s when most farmers had around 10 head of dairy cows they milked. If was a major source of income to most rural American farmers. These farmers established dairy associations that were and still are highly politically active.
Most of them established a association fees based upon the amount of milk they produced. So they had a lot of money to spend on lobbying and voting power in rural communities. They then used that power to shape national policy and do national marketing campaigns.
With the consolidation of the industry since the 1980’s their voting power has declined but the money for lobbying keeps flowing. Since the u.s. government is controlled by legal bribery at this point…
That does not really explain the lack of use on the technology (which you do have, to make milk products lactose free) and the lack of products/marketing on lactose free milk products.
Isnt USA all about making new products for new consumers? If we can do it here, in a much smaller markets and with less resources, why cant it be done in the USA? You do have lots of lactose intolerant people there, through immigration alone - why on earth dont you, salesmen of the planet, want to sell that to them?
Thats why I do kinda of suppose that maybe its an cultural/social issue?
Isnt USA all about making new products for new consumers?
If the corps that make the original product are making the alternative, yes. If they are not, then no. Just see all the fighting over meat alternatives and even lab grown meat. The meat industry is fighting pretty hard to make sure they can’t market them as meat or meat alternatives.
We do. Vegan soy cheese is in a lot of groceries now, but usually only specialized restaurants will offer fake cheese as an option. We’re just starting to get fake meat in various eateries, and that’s still mostly limited to burgers.
A few pizzerias around here will offer a cheese -less pizza or other vegan options (fake cheese, onions paste instead, etc).
Edit: oh we also have milk and cheese but engineered to be lactose free. I’d say that’s even rarer in restaurants than vegan options though.
oh we also have milk and cheese but engineered to be lactose free. I’d say that’s even rarer in restaurants than vegan options though.
That’s really surprising. Lactose-free milk has been really common here in Finland for gods know how long, probably 20 years at least. Low lactose even longer.
Not sure I’ve ever seen low lactose or lactose free cheese though, although it’s not something I’d pay attention to. I thought many cheeses are pretty low in lactose to begin with due to the process naturally converting it to something else?
edit turns out lactose free cheeses are also extremely common, I just didn’t know because I can digest lactose without pooping
Katsopa tarkemmin. Esimerkiksi Arkijuusto on ollut laktoositonta viimeiset 5 vuotta, vähintään. Eikä todellakaan ole ainoa. T: Juusto rakastava, laktoosia paskova.
For english speakers: we have had lactose free cheesw for a while, and it is delicious.
Fair enough, but it is also an observation based on other observations (through american culture’s past and current hegemony on global internet’s english speaking portion) about the cheesyness of america.
Edit: also I’m finnish, our humour is kind of dry and tries to be witty, like think of the brits. So read it through that lense.
The US supports a lot of food allergies and alternatives, but I’ve never seen lactose free cheese at a pizza place. People either get no cheese or take a pill to make eating cheese less of a problem.
I thought many cheeses don’t even contain (or a very small percentage) of lactose. I’m lactose intolerant and only have issues with milk and ice cream but never cheese.
This is really a thing ive been wondering about USA… Dont you have lactose free products? I mean, if the tiny Nordics can and do produce lactose free versions of pretty much everything, in pretty much every possible place, why cant you?
Is it a sadism/eugenics thing (kidding but not 100% kidding)?
One interesting thing about lactose free products is, that most aren’t lactose free. They only contain the enzymes to digest the lactose. If you are lactose intolerant this is perfectly fine, but if you’re allergic to lactose it doesn’t change anything for you
In Finland they are. Why cant you do it?
I‘m not from the US (Germany) and neither have I much experience with lactose free products. I know someone who is allergic to lactose though and when I was buying stuff for him he told me the exact brand of stuff I needed to get due to the issue I mentioned.
True enough - I have to very careful when visiting local Lidls and browsing their products (though Finnish Lidls tend stock a lot of local lactose free stuff, luckily), else one invites the shitrocket.
But again this invites my query, invoked earlier on another comment in this thread - Germany is a much larger market with lots of immigration and the tech exists. Why not sell it to people, when there is also volume available?
Like most “but why US” questions, the answer starts with ‘M’ and rhymes with ‘oney’.
The dairy lobby is powerful in the US, for reasons I’ve never bothered to look into the few times one of their tantrums end up on the news.
It’s a matter of the Nexus of regulatory capture, unrestricted money in politics, and historic Inertia is my surface understanding of why ‘Dairy’ is such a bristly thing here.
Dairy’s really got their power in the 1940’s-1950’s when most farmers had around 10 head of dairy cows they milked. If was a major source of income to most rural American farmers. These farmers established dairy associations that were and still are highly politically active.
Most of them established a association fees based upon the amount of milk they produced. So they had a lot of money to spend on lobbying and voting power in rural communities. They then used that power to shape national policy and do national marketing campaigns.
With the consolidation of the industry since the 1980’s their voting power has declined but the money for lobbying keeps flowing. Since the u.s. government is controlled by legal bribery at this point…
That does not really explain the lack of use on the technology (which you do have, to make milk products lactose free) and the lack of products/marketing on lactose free milk products.
Isnt USA all about making new products for new consumers? If we can do it here, in a much smaller markets and with less resources, why cant it be done in the USA? You do have lots of lactose intolerant people there, through immigration alone - why on earth dont you, salesmen of the planet, want to sell that to them?
Thats why I do kinda of suppose that maybe its an cultural/social issue?
The answer no one has given you is: lactose free stuff is sold in most grocery stores.
If the corps that make the original product are making the alternative, yes. If they are not, then no. Just see all the fighting over meat alternatives and even lab grown meat. The meat industry is fighting pretty hard to make sure they can’t market them as meat or meat alternatives.
We do. Vegan soy cheese is in a lot of groceries now, but usually only specialized restaurants will offer fake cheese as an option. We’re just starting to get fake meat in various eateries, and that’s still mostly limited to burgers.
A few pizzerias around here will offer a cheese -less pizza or other vegan options (fake cheese, onions paste instead, etc).
Edit: oh we also have milk and cheese but engineered to be lactose free. I’d say that’s even rarer in restaurants than vegan options though.
That’s really surprising. Lactose-free milk has been really common here in Finland for gods know how long, probably 20 years at least. Low lactose even longer.
Not sure I’ve ever seen low lactose or lactose free cheese though, although it’s not something I’d pay attention to. I thought many cheeses are pretty low in lactose to begin with due to the process naturally converting it to something else?
edit turns out lactose free cheeses are also extremely common, I just didn’t know because I can digest lactose without pooping
Fun fact! Practically all hard cheeses are lactose free!
You can check for yourself by checking the nutritional label for sugars. If it’s 0, you’re good!
A-ha, so my vague recollection was actually on the right path for once
Katsopa tarkemmin. Esimerkiksi Arkijuusto on ollut laktoositonta viimeiset 5 vuotta, vähintään. Eikä todellakaan ole ainoa. T: Juusto rakastava, laktoosia paskova.
For english speakers: we have had lactose free cheesw for a while, and it is delicious.
Ah, näinpä tietenkin. Ei tosiaan ole tullut kiinnitettyä huomiota kun minuun laktoosi uppoaa ilman että paska lentää (no, siitä syystä ainakaan)
Do pizza shops/chains offer lactose-free pizza options in Finland, typically?
Try not to assume too much from crow memes.
Fair enough, but it is also an observation based on other observations (through american culture’s past and current hegemony on global internet’s english speaking portion) about the cheesyness of america.
Edit: also I’m finnish, our humour is kind of dry and tries to be witty, like think of the brits. So read it through that lense.
The US supports a lot of food allergies and alternatives, but I’ve never seen lactose free cheese at a pizza place. People either get no cheese or take a pill to make eating cheese less of a problem.
I thought many cheeses don’t even contain (or a very small percentage) of lactose. I’m lactose intolerant and only have issues with milk and ice cream but never cheese.
We have it, but the major driver is for vegan products rather than people unable to digest dairy. Cheese is on everything here.
I know people who tried it and would rather forgo cheese than to try and eat that “garbage”, their words.