Guide · Allergens
Milk — allergen no. 7 under the FIC Regulation
Milk is one of the most common allergens — and it is in far more than cheese and yoghurt: as casein or whey powder in sausage, bakery products and chocolate. The sentence to remember: “lactose-free” does NOT mean “milk-free”. Here is where milk is, what has to be declared, and where the few exceptions lie.
What is the milk allergen?
Annex II of the FIC Regulation (Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011) lists as number 7: “Milk and products thereof (including lactose)”. All milk constituents are covered — milk protein (casein, whey protein), milk sugar (lactose), butterfat and so on.
“Lactose-free” is NOT “milk-free”
A central point that is often confused:
- Lactose intolerance = an intolerance of the milk sugar. “Lactose-free” products help here.
- Milk allergy = a reaction to the milk protein. Lactose-free products do not help here — they still contain casein and whey protein.
A “lactose-free” product therefore still has to be declared as the milk allergen. Note that the FIC Regulation does not define “lactose-free” at all: the word “lactose” appears exactly once in the whole Regulation, in the Annex II entry above. There is no EU-wide threshold for the claim; in Germany the figure applied in practice is below 0.1 g lactose per 100 g or 100 ml. Either way, the claim never replaces the allergen information.
The exceptions
Annex II no. 7 attaches exactly two exceptions:
| Excepted | Note |
|---|---|
| Whey | “used for making alcoholic distillates including ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin” |
| Lactitol | a sugar alcohol (sweetener E966) |
Everything else from milk — lactose included — has to be declared.
Where milk hides
- Obvious — milk, butter, cream, yoghurt, cheese, quark, whey, condensed milk.
- As milk protein — casein or caseinate and whey powder in sausage, scalded sausage, bakery products, chocolate, spreads.
- As milk sugar — lactose as a carrier or bulking agent, including in some seasoning mixes and medicines.
- Hidden — butterfat and “butter flavour”, cream sauces, coatings, cream soups.
How to label milk correctly
In the list of ingredients on prepacked food, the ingredient has to be named (“milk”, “butter”, “whey powder”, “casein”) and the Annex II name has to be emphasised. Article 21(1)(b) puts it like this: the name “shall be emphasised through a typeset that clearly distinguishes it from the rest of the list of ingredients, for example by means of the font, style or background colour”. In practice that is almost always bold type.
Casein and whey powder in savoury products are the cases missed most often. For food sold without prepackaging, Article 44(1)(a) makes the allergen particulars mandatory, while Article 44(2) leaves it to each Member State to decide “the means through which the particulars … are to be made available”. In Germany that national measure is § 4 LMIDV; see allergen labelling in restaurants and how to write a menu.
This article is general information and does not replace legal advice. What counts is the wording of the regulation as it applies at the time (Annex II no. 7 of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011). The English text of the Regulation is quoted from the consolidated version of 1 January 2018 on EUR-Lex.